Maybe I am wrong. Maybe this is all pointless conjecture.
I am only working from what I see and hear from the White House and the Administration officials.
And if I am wrong, then I apologize for this unwarranted warning.
Time will tell.
Mr. Trump is biding his time before he chooses which should be his next fight.
He has already received the blessing of the Supreme Court that he cannot be legally liable for anything that he does (officially) as President. So, he makes sure to call everything he does an official act.
He has already packed the upper echelon of the military with Trump Loyalists since the last group of Generals in his Cabinet were insufficiently responsive to his requests.
He has already determined that he can do pretty much anything he wants as long as he declares a “national emergency”.
He has declared a “National Economic Emergency” under the International Emergency Economics Powers Act (IEEPA), which is the tool to allow him the power to impose tariffs, normally restricted without a formal declaration of Emergency.
He has declared a “National Energy Emergency”, which is the tool he is using to open Federal lands to new drilling, a power usually reserved to Congress.
He has declared a “National Emergency” at the Southern Border.
I think we can expect more “National Emergencies” when he wants to impose some order or proclamation that is debatably not his to impose.
He has already gotten the Republicans in Congress to cede to him the power of the purse by passing a CR that does not list the items and amounts to be spent (as has been the case until now), thereby leaving the decisions of where and when to spend money solely to the White House. He doesn’t need to violate prior Supreme Court decisions that prohibit a President from using a line-item veto. With no lines to veto, there is no issue; he can write his own lines.
He has installed as head of the DOJ someone who issued a memo to employees in the Justice Department emphasizing that expectations “include not only aggressively enforcing civil and criminal laws enacted by Congress, but also vigorously defending presidential policies and actions against legal challenges on behalf of the United States.” She has also eliminated the section on Environmental Justice, to rescind all “materials that encouraged or permitted race- or sex-based preferences as a method of compliance with federal civil rights laws.” She has also eliminated the Public Integrity section that prosecutes political corruption in the states and the country.
Mr. Trump has indefinitely paused the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, that enforces international bribery.
He has already packed the upper echelon of the military with Trump Loyalists since the last group of Generals in his Cabinet were insufficiently responsive to his requests.
He has already determined that he can do pretty much anything he wants as long as he declares a “national emergency”.
He has declared a “National Economic Emergency” under the International Emergency Economics Powers Act (IEEPA), which is the tool to allow him the power to impose tariffs, normally restricted without the Emergency.
He has declared a “National Energy Emergency”, which is the tool he is using to open Federal lands to new drilling, a power usually reserved to Congress.
He has declared a “National Emergency” at the Southern Border.
I think we can expect more “National Emergencies” when he wants to impose some order or proclamation that is debatably not his to impose.
He has already gotten the Republicans in Congress to cede to him the power of the purse by passing a CR that does not list the items and amounts to be spent (as has been the case until now), thereby leaving the decisions of where and when to spend money solely to the White House. He doesn’t need to violate prior Supreme Court decisions that prohibit a President from using a line-item veto. With no lines to veto, there is no issue; he can write his own lines.
He has installed as head of the DOJ someone who issued a memo to employees in the Justice Department emphasizing that expectations “include not only aggressively enforcing civil and criminal laws enacted by Congress, but also vigorously defending presidential policies and actions against legal challenges on behalf of the United States.” She has also eliminated the section on Environmental Justice, to rescind all “materials that encouraged or permitted race- or sex-based preferences as a method of compliance with federal civil rights laws.” She has also eliminated the Public Integrity section that prosecutes political corruption in the states and the country.
The next step is to neuter the Courts. The question is not “if” he will defy a court order, it is only “when” he will do so.
The stage is being set.
The evidence is out there.
Justice Alito: "Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars? The answer to that question should be an emphatic 'No,' but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned." The 5-4 decision hangs on a thread and may not hold on a future case.
The Trump administration is weighing its options on which case to directly defy; which one will appeal to his appointees on the Supreme Court, and their conservative allies. Because if he can set the precedent that the President has rights that supersede the Courts, he will have consolidated a great deal of power in the White House.
Pam Bondi: “A DC trial judge supported Tren de Aragua terrorists over the safety of Americans…This order disregards well-established authority regarding President Trump’s power, and it puts the public and law enforcement at risk.”
This one is close, but the administration is trying to walk it away, by claiming that the plane had already left this country. They will appeal.
Karoline Leavitt: “You cannot have a low-level district court judge filing an injunction to usurp the executive authority of the president of the United States, that is completely absurd.”
This is a little closer. Alito is on their side here.
Vice President Vance: "Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power.”
"When the courts stop you, stand before the country like [US president] Andrew Jackson did and say: 'The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.'"
“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that's also illegal.”
This is directed at the Trump supporters, to give them a heads up that the Presidency should no longer be thought of as an equal in party in the 3 divisions of authority in the Constitution. Article II, in this reading supersedes Article I, and if the DOJ is part of the Executive Branch, then the courts and judges fall under the President’s authority also.
Elon Musk: “Momentum is growing rapidly to impeach activist judges who repeatedly fail to follow the law.”
“There needs to be an immediate wave of judicial impeachments, not just one.”
Here they begin to layout the strategy, directly. If you oppose the decision of the court, then the authors of the decisions are corrupt, and need to be impeached. Remove any judge who does not support your agenda.
Rep. Eli Crane (R-ID) introduces articles of impeachment against Judge Paul Engelmayer who had ruled to block DOGE from accessing Treasury Dept. data.
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA): “I’m drafting articles of impeachment for U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. He’s a partisan activist weaponizing our judicial system to stop President Trump’s funding freeze on woke and wasteful government spending.”
And finally, there are the quotes from Mr. Trump himself:
Quoting Napoleon: “He who saves his country violates no law.”
To the Governor of New York: “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!”
The White House then reinforced the message, recirculating it on Instagram and X with an illustration of Mr. Trump wearing a crown on a magazine cover resembling Time, but called Trump.
All of the rhetoric is setting the stage for Mr. Trump to announce that he is defying a Judge’s order, forcing a legal crisis that would need to go to the Supreme Court, attempting to eliminate lower courts from ruling against a sitting President.