What The Hell America!

And then he goes on to great lengths in this interview to say—on more than one occasion—that he always thinks he should abide by and comply with Supreme Court decisions. In fact, two or three times, he says he abides by lower court rulings. And I actually have to say: Give the man his due on this one. By and large, his administration has adhered to the court orders, many of which have gone against them since January 20. They’ve adhered to them on issues like transgender troops in the military. They’ve adhered on issues like birthright citizenship. When they’ve been told to do things, they generally have done it—but not on this case. And I strongly suspect that what’s happening here is he simply doesn’t know that the Supreme Court told him to facilitate the return of Garcia.

Sargent: Well, there’s something else I want to bring up in the Time magazine interview because it supports what you’re saying here. Trump was asked if he has requested of El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to return Abrego Garcia, and Trump said, No, I haven’t asked him. Then the reporter asked Trump, Well, if you haven’t asked him, then how are you facilitating his release? meaning he’s violating the Supreme Court. And Trump answered that by saying, Well, my attorneys haven’t asked me to ask Bukele to release Abrego Garcia. So he is throwing his own attorneys under the bus here. He’s basically saying, My lawyers have not told me I have to comply with the Supreme Court in the way that you are saying—which, I think, really underscores this basic idea that he’s being fundamentally deceived about the legality of his policies. Did you catch that detail? I thought it was extraordinary.

Cohen: At one point, he says, Nobody asked me to ask him that question, which was, “Are you going to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to United States?” It says, to me, that no one asked him to do it, so he didn’t do it. I just genuinely don’t think he’s aware of how the Supreme Court ruled in this particular case. And if that’s true, that’s a little bit terrifying. First of all, it’s that Stephen Miller’s running immigration policy to a much larger degree than even we suspected before, but also it suggests that Trump is simply not aware what is going on around him at the White House. He’s not aware of what decisions Supreme Court is making. And I think we know this about Trump: He’s not the smartest butter knife in the drawer. I think he’s not going to go look at the Supreme Court ruling and see that it rules against him; he’s going to take the word of his aides.