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Trump says he âalwaysâ abides by court orders as allies lay groundwork to defy them
President says he will â??always abide by the courtsâ?? as his administration and allies threaten judges and checks and balances
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President Donald Trump claims he will âalways abide by the courtsâ but suggested that a series of judicial decisions blocking his executive actions and policy maneuvers had derailed his âmomentum.â
âWell, I always abide by the courts, and then Iâll have to appeal it. But then what heâs done is heâs slowed down the momentum, and it gives crooked people more time to cover up the books,â Trump said from the Oval Office on Tuesday.
âSo yeah, the answer is, I always abide by the courts, always abide by them, and weâll appeal, but appeals take a long time,â he added.
Trumpâs remarks follow a deluge of attacks from Elon Musk, Vice President JD Vance, administration officials and their allies, casting aside checks and balances and falsely suggesting that the presidency has supreme authority over Congress and the judicial branch.
Elon Musk appears in the Oval Office with Donald Trump on February 11 (REUTERS )Their comments â raising alarms among constitutional scholars and legal analysts for an impending constitutional crisis â follow rulings from judges across the country after an avalanche of lawsuits from civil rights groups, federal workers and state officials, among others, challenged the Trump administrationâs swift policy moves.
Federal judges have responded by blocking the administration from redefining the 14th Amendmentâs birthright citizenship clause, firing thousands of aid workers, deleting health information from government websites, and imposing a deadline for more than 2 million federal workers to accept so-called âbuyoutâ offers, among other actions.
On Monday, a judge in Rhode Island found that the administration defied the âplain textâ of an earlier ruling commanding Trump to unfreeze billions of dollars in federal grants.
Judge John J. McConnell Jr. said his order was âclear and unambiguous, and there are no impediments to the Defendantsâ compliance.â
Trump has appealed several decisions, including the decision over his funding freeze and rulings that have temporarily blocked his birthright citizenship executive order, among others.
But the decisions striking down his actions have ignited a firestorm among Trump allies, accusing judges â many of whom were appointed by Republicans â of launching a judicial âcoupâ to undermine his agenda.
âWe are witnessing an attempted coup of American democracy by radical left activists posing as judges,â Musk wrote Tuesday.
Musk also called for the impeachment of a federal judge after a ruling temporarily blocked his Department of Government Efficiencyâs access to Treasury Department data.
Trump told reporters on February 11 that he âalwaysâ abides by court orders while his allies and administration officials lay the groundwork to defy them ( Getty Images)White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, whose right-wing legal advocacy group repeatedly sued Joe Bidenâs administration to force the courts to block his agenda, took a swing at an âunelected district judgeâ with âdecision-making control over the entire executive branch.â
Alina Habba, Trumpâs former personal attorney who is now serving as counselor to the president, told Fox News on Tuesday that âthereâs a separation of powers for a reasonâ â seemingly arguing that it is designed to preserve the presidentâs âultimate authorityâ rather than establishing checks and balances to prevent a president from abusing it.
âThe executive branch is the ultimate authority on federal issues, and we have rogue judges who are trying to stop [administration officials] from doing their job,â she claimed.
Inside the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said courts shouldnât prevent any federal agency from going over their books, but the lawsuits accuse him of unconstitutionally withholding federal funds and international aid and target Muskâs alleged hijacking of federal data.
âI canât imagine that could be held up by the court,â Trump said. âAny court that would say that the president or his representatives â like Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of State, whatever â doesnât have the right to go over their books and make sure everythingâs honest, I mean how can you have a country?â
His remarks echo statements he made on Air Force One on Sunday, when he said that âwe donât have a country anymoreâ and that âno judge should, frankly, be allowed to make that kind of a decision,â which he called a âdisgrace.â
