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During an MSNBC segment of Donald Trump's ongoing wave of retribution against his perceived enemies, combined with his new attacks against law firms and educational institutions, longtime political observer John Heilemann claimed it wall all come back to harm him.

The "Morning Joe" panel began by discussing the Trump administration appearing in a Boston federal courtroom on Thursday to battle with Harvard University in a case involving the attempts to restrict the university from enrolling international students, which led to Heilemann to claim the president is taking his eye off what got him elected.

"The Trump administration driven by President Trump has been so extreme in how it's dealt with Harvard and made demands that no university could ever accept, that it kind of put someone who would potentially have been a partner of the Trump administration back on its heels and pushed it into a corner," he told the panel. "And you have a lot of people who –– even people who have been very critical of Harvard –– who look at this and go, 'Hey, I think this is going a little bit too far."

EXCLUSIVE: Trump accused of new grift that puts Qatari plane in shade

Pointing out that Trump "sees conflict as a zero sum game," he later added, "If you fight back against Trump he will fight you until there's no more fight to fight he just, he goes all the way to the extreme. He has done this across the board essentially, whether it's Miles Taylor or Chris Krebs or anybody else. If they push back against Trump, it is their fault and he will then punish them."

"It can be politically self-defeating because it takes his eye off the ball on what is really the political calculus that got him back into the White House, which is prices, economy, turning all that stuff around," he remarked. "Trump seems really distracted by a lot of personal vendettas here and not focused on what his base and what all American or Republican voters want."

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A ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade on Wednesday that Donald Trump overstepped his authority by instituting reciprocal tariffs on U.S. trading partners has given the president a chance to back off his unpopular trade war policies –– but he won't.

Reacting to the ruling where the court stated the use of tariffs was "impermissible not because it is unwise or ineffective, but because [federal law] does not allow it,” MSNBC "Morning Joe" co-host Jonathan Lemire suggested there are those who believe Trump would take advantage of the ruling as an "off-ramp."

"I know there was some speculation last night, some wishful thinking, perhaps from some other Republicans I heard from that this may be an off-ramp for President Trump, that you could blame the courts, but then actually back away from some of the tariffs because of the impact on the markets, because of the impact potentially down the road on the economy," Lemire told the panel. "But this is, Joe [Scarborough], as you well know, the president has believed in for a very long time, and at least now I'm told, he doesn't plan to alter course."

EXCLUSIVE: Trump accused of new grift that puts Qatari plane in shade

That led co-host Scarborough to state, "So I'm going to say this slowly so our billionaire friends on Wall Street and our multi-millionaire friends on Wall Street who trade every day can understand it: if you thought that Donald Trump was just talking when he kept campaigning and promising to provide tariffs –– he wasn't."

"He's been saying that since 1987, and I have it on very good authority that the people that are saying Donald Trump is backing down on tariffs and there's an off-ramp, that Donald Trump does not believe there is an off-ramp for tariffs," he continued.

"And people running around saying that he always backs down or he chickens out, why don't you just invite him to put more tariffs on more countries," he joked. "He's not backing down on tariffs. It is one of the driving forces of his political life and his political being. There is no off-ramp, alright? Let me say that again: there is no off-ramp."

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A federal court’s decision to strike down Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff plan may be a political “black eye” for the administration – but could ultimately help the president if it effectively causes him to be “stymied in doing something that's going to raise costs for people,” according to Democratic strategist David Axelrod.

“It may be a black eye, but it may also be a break for him,” Axelrod claimed.

President Donald Trump doesn't want to get into a public fight with tech billionaire Elon Musk as the latter denounces his "big, beautiful bill" on tax cuts, energy deregulation, and border security, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman told CNN's Jake Tapper on Wednesday.

The bill, which narrowly passed the House earlier this month, cuts hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid and food assistance, on top of a laundry list of other controversial provisions, to preserve Trump's 2017 tax cuts. It faces an uncertain path in the Senate as Republicans vow to make major changes.

New York Times opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof penned a piece over the Memorial Day weekend that detailed the ongoing corruption in President Donald Trump's White House.

MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace said that she was reading the column and quickly sent it to everyone she knew. They responded, "Go back to your barbecue."

Eric Trump revealed that he had an opportunity to mortgage Mar-a-Lago to purchase cryptocurrency but chose not to because his father would not have been "thrilled."

At a Bitcoin conference on Wednesday, Trump said he was approached by "Bitcoin evangelist" Michael Saylor about a year earlier.

MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace was shocked not only by seeing the full list of President Donald Trump's latest rounds of pardons, but also by a call he had with the daughter of one of those pardoned individuals.

On the phone with Savannah Chrisley, Trump said her jailed parents, Todd and Julie Chrisley, are "terrific people" — despite being convicted of a bank and tax fraud scheme.

Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) was relentlessly booed at a town hall over her support for President Donald Trump.

The first jeers came just moments into her event on Wednesday.

A woman yelling profanity and racist slurs went viral after she threatened to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a U.S. citizen selling Mexican food.

Oscar Lopez told NBC 4's Tracey Leong that he shared the video on social media after the woman repeatedly drove past his food stand in Palmdale, California.

President Donald Trump lashed out at a reporter after she said he "chickens out" on tariffs.

While taking questions at the White House on Wednesday, one correspondent noted that Wall Street analysts had begun mocking the president.