What are the origins and implications of hyper-transactional thinking coming out of Trump 2.0? I discuss this and other issues with the eminent critical race theorist and legal scholar Patricia J. Williams whose latest book, The Miracle of the Black Leg: Notes on Race, Human Bodies, and the Spirit of the Law (2024) examines the tension between rights in contract and constitutions. At a time when a hyper-contractarian mentality has taken over diplomacy, eroded the rules-based international order, and rolled back the gains of the Civil Rights Movement -we consider the implications through histories of racialisation and the afterlives of slavery.