'Strategic bluster' or 'full-blown constitutional crisis'? Analysis warns of Trump’s 'nuclear option'

10 February

As judges continue to block actions by President Donald Trump's administration, Trump and his allies could be setting the stage to defy rulings from the courts, Washington Post senior political reporter Aaron Blake reports.

So far, the courts have served as a backstop for Trump's orders. At least 10 judges have stopped moves by the Trump administration — “a staggering clip that reflects just how much Trump is disregarding federal statutes and legal precedent,” Blake writes in an analysis published Monday.

“And as that clash builds, it’s becoming increasingly valid to consider the seemingly unthinkable: Trump and his administration simply defying those court orders and launching the country into a full-blown constitutional crisis,” he adds.

“It sounds alarmist," Blake notes. "But Trump and Co. are not exactly downplaying that possibility. And you could be forgiven for thinking they’re laying a pretext for doing it.”

On Monday, a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled the Trump administration violated a “clear and unambiguous” court order demanding the White House immediate resume federal funding.

“That doesn’t mean the Trump administration will start deliberately ignoring such orders — and there’s reason to believe the rhetoric could be strategic bluster,” Blake writes. “But the dynamics of an increasingly brazen president surrounded by brazen allies like Elon Musk carrying out his agenda have set us on course for one of the biggest tests of our democracy in many decades.”

Over the weekend, a federal judge blocked Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing millions of Americans’ personal and financial data from the Treasury Department. The judge argued that only public servants who need to access that data for their jobs should legally be able to see it.

“But almost instantly, prominent Trump allies cast the decision as being much broader than that,” Blake writes. They argued — seemingly incorrectly — that the ruling also barred Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent from accessing the data.

“Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” Vice President J.D. Vance posted on X. Vance, Blake points out, has a history of saying the president could go against the courts.

“For now, the Trump administration isn’t using the nuclear option of defying a court order,” Blake writes. “In its new filing, it asked for clarity on the Bessent issue but assured it was complying with the order.”

“A judge is being singled out with the kind of extensive and hyperbolic political attacks that have become commonplace throughout Trump’s time in politics. And perhaps in the future, the whole episode gives another judge pause — even subconsciously — about doing anything to restrain Trump’s executive power,” Blake writes.

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