'Clear choice': Experts say Trump 'openly defying' Supreme Court may doom future elections

14 April

Supreme Court 2022, Image via Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States

President Donald Trump's misrepresentation of the Supreme Court ruling on Kilmar Abrego Garcia — falsely claiming that the court ruled 9-0 in the administration's favor — has raised concerns among some analysts, who are calling it a "constitutional crisis."

During a press conference alongside El Salvador President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump claimed that the Supreme Court had ruled 9–0 in his favor and that the ruling in the case meant that the U.S. government would have to provide a plane only if the Salvadoran president chose to return Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man wrongfully deported to an infamous Salvadoran prison.

“Of course I’m not going to do it,” Bukele said when asked by reporters if he would help return the man, adding that returning him would be akin to smuggling “a terrorist into the United States.”

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According to some political commentators, the president is openly defying the judiciary and some have warned that this development poses a risk to the credibility of the 2026 midterm elections.

David Frum, a writer at The Atlantic, said in a post on the social platform X: "Trump defying a 9-0 Supreme Court decision is the reason I say 'if we still have free and fair elections in the United States' when I talk about 2026 midterms."

Editor in chief MeidasTouch Ron Filpkowski said this was "another court order that Trump is now openly defying."

"Republicans in Congress assured us repeatedly that Trump would never defy a court order. It is obvious that he simply doesn’t care though after the Supreme Court gave him immunity," he added.

ALSO READ: Supreme Court unanimously rules against Trump in case of wrongfully deported man

Author Hold Meyerson wrote in an article for the American Prospect that Garcia's case is "the first that presents Trump with the clear choice of obeying a Supreme Court order or flouting it."

"So far he's opting for the latter, bolstered by the administration's most powerful adviser," Meyerson added.

Democratic strategist Mike Nellis said he doesn't use that term lightly, "but Trump outright refusing the SupremeCourt’s order to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an *actual* constitutional crisis."

Political activist Don Winslow wrote, BREAKING RIGHT NOW! THEY ARE NOT GOING TO BRING ABREGO GARCIA HOME. This is Donald Trump defying the SupremeCourt."

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