As David Kurtz writes at TPM, we’ve crossed the Rubicon. Trump is now openly defying judge’s orders.
The major news of the weekend was the rapid-fire series of events following President Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act that culminated with the White House chortling over its defiance of a federal court order blocking deportations under the act and ordering outbound flights to return to the United States.
The Trump administration’s immediate deportation to El Salvador of Venezuelan nationals claimed to be part of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang is its own saga, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio taunting the federal court, El Salvador’s president releasing grim videos of dehumanizing treatment of the detainees, and the White House trumpeting how it ignored a federal judge to create a fait accompli.
Today already a federal judge has scheduled a hearing for 4 pm this afternoon to give the Trump Administration a chance to explain itself. At Axios, Marc Caputo writes How the White House ignored a judge’s order to turn back deportation flights.
The Trump administration says it ignored a Saturday court order to turn around two planeloads of alleged Venezuelan gang members because the flights were over international waters and therefore the ruling didn’t apply, two senior officials tell Axios. …
… The White House welcomes that fight. “This is headed to the Supreme Court. And we’re going to win,” a senior White House official told Axios.
A second administration official said Trump was not defying the judge whose ruling came too late for the planes to change course: “Very important that people understand we are not actively defying court orders.”
State of play: Trump’s advisers contend U.S. District Judge James Boasberg overstepped his authority by issuing an order that blocked the president from deporting about 250 alleged Tren de Aragua gang members under the Alien Enemies Act of 1789.
The war-time law gives the executive extreme immense power to deport noncitizens without a judicial hearing. But it has been little-used, particularly in peacetime.
“It’s the showdown that was always going to happen between the two branches of government,” a senior White House official said. “And it seemed that this was pretty clean. You have Venezuelan gang members … These are bad guys, as the president would say.”
Since Trump kind of skipped the due process thing, we are supposed to take his word that all the deported people were Venezuelan gang members and not just random migrants rounded up to put on a show. I understand Trump has been frantic to ramp up the number of people deported, since so far he hasn’t managed to deport people any faster than other administrations. In any event, the judge has blocked Trump from deporting anybody under the Alien Enemies Act.
And while the White House may be officially declaring that it didn’t intend to defy the judge, Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan pretty much says otherwise.
We are going to make this country safe again … I’m proud to be a part of this administration. We are not stopping. I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what the Left thinks. We’re coming,” he added.
Asked what was coming next in the administration’s deportation efforts, Homan said: “Another flight. Another flight every day.”
Although I don’t know if there have been flights per the Alien Enemies Act today. But a Republican House member from Texas has declared he is filing articles of impeachment against the judge.
The War on Social Security. Musk put the Lost Boys to work to find actual dead people receiving Social Security so he can justify killing it, I take it they thought they’d found one. Except he’s not dead yet. This is from the Seattle Times:
Johnson’s strange trip through the netherworld began in February, when a letter from his bank arrived addressed to his wife, Pam.
“We recently received notification of LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s passing,” it began. “We offer our sincerest condolences …”
At first she figured it was a scam — her husband, after all, was sitting right there. But then the bank got to the point.
“We know this is a difficult time, and we’re here to help,” the bank wrote. “We received a request from Social Security Administration to return benefits paid to LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s account after their passing.”
“There’s nothing you need to do — we’ve deducted the funds from LEONARD A. JOHNSON’s account.”
Uh oh. It itemized how $5,201 had been stricken from their bank account, on the grounds that Ned wasn’t justified to get those benefits — because he was dead. That was for payments he’d received in December and January.
Ned found that his February Social Security check hadn’t been paid, and he’s yet to receive his March check, either. His Medicare insurance had been canceled. He also learned that when you die, your credit score gets marked as “deceased, do not issue credit,” which makes it tough to get a loan.
“The good news is I don’t think it can go any lower than that,” he said cheerfully.
He called the bank first, and they said an electronic notification had been triggered on Feb. 18 that he had died back in November. But I’m on the phone with you right now, he told them. Also, what did I die of? Take it up with Social Security, they said.
Naturally, dealing with the local Social Security office was a nightmare because of layoffs. He’s lucky it hadn’t closed yet. As of the posting of the news story Johnson had gotten his $5,201 back, but his missing back payments for February and March are still missing. And it doesn’t say if his Medicare benefits have restarted.
But, yeah,, 80 years without a missed Social Security payment, I understand, until Elon Musk got hold of it.
See also Judd Legum at Popular Information, Memo details Trump plan to sabotage the Social Security Administration. The Plan seems to be to make it much more difficult to apply for benefits. This is what Musk calls “efficiency.”
At the Department of Justice, acknowledgment of the heroism and important contributions of military personnel who are not White men are being erased from websites and other public records. Axios reports that “Articles about the renowned Native American Code Talkers have disappeared from some military websites, with several broken URLs now labeled ‘DEI.'”
And at the Guardian, see Black Medal of Honor recipient removed from US Department of Defense website.
The US defense department webpage celebrating an army general who served in the Vietnam war and was awarded the country’s highest military decoration has been removed and the letters “DEI” added to the site’s address.
On Saturday, US army Maj Gen Charles Calvin Rogers’s Medal of Honor webpage led to a “404” error message. The URL was also changed, with the word “medal” changed to “deimedal”.
Rogers was wounded three times while leading the defense of a base. But heroism only counts when White men do it, I guess.
One more: Trump has declared all of Biden’s pardons to be void. Let’s see if he can make that stick.
I want to thank everybody who made yesterday’s fundraiser such a success. This really helps. Of course, additional donations via GoFundMe or using the donate button at the top of the right-hand column on the home page are still welcome. But I won’t ask again. For now.
When you need to ask, ask. I appreciate Mahablog more than you know.
After I saw your list of things in hell world, I was compelled to make my own list of the orange revolution rules and political platform. In no particular order. Please add to this list if you see anything that I missed.
– No more equal protection under the law, 2 types of citizens: (white) GOP members who are in the fold and everyone else.
– No checks and balances, this regime is a dictatorship. The man on the white nag defying court orders is the only one that can fix things.
– No more due process, see above.
– No more rule of law, the Flying Monkeys fancies are the law. The law is only a tool for punishing enemies. Law is not to be followed when inconvenient or in need of a social media bump.
– No more representative democracy… where are the Dems? Instead, the right to petition your lawmakers is a new friend/foe detection method.
– No more free speech … self-incrimination speech and and an online "struggle session" for dissenters look like the new status quo.
– No more diplomacy, signed treaties mean nothing. Lick the boots of dear leader to get something.
– No more Western Alliance and the "free world"
– No more nuclear security. This one is too complex and expensive to fund.
– No more friendly northern border.
– No More SSI. You are on your own, now, welfare queen.
– No more national government backing for anything that is not orange man's new shiny toy. If you are not a paying party member in good standing, pound sand for grants.
– No national program of science and technology to benefit businesses and individuals.
– No more national cohesion. There are party members in good standing and everyone else.
– No more freedom of conscience. Trump Derangement Syndrome will be injected into the DSM.
– No more global leadership. "America First" means "America Alone" and it does not matter if our adversaries, think China, are taking full advantage of this abdication.
– No more end of Jim Crow. American apartheid for anyone but Uncle Tom.
– No more education for all, only robot programming/propaganda sessions at home skool or bible thumping academies.
– No more free trade. Tariffs are a beautiful word.
– No more health standards. Now dictated by individuals with no training or expertise in health matters and supplement manufacturers.
– Don't even think about LBGTQ+ issues.
– No more environment, say goodbye to public lands and drill, baby drill.
– No more clean water for everyone, look what you drink poors! Bassmasters will be fine with rivers that catch on fire.
– No DOJ, just MAGA thugs.
– No more morals, only money: Open corruption, open bribery, best democracy money can buy.
– No more coherent definition of the use of language, orange people can say "just joking" or "couldn't you tell when I was in a very serious mode that I was actually being sarcastic?" when in a tight spot.
– No more Ukraine.
We are screwed. I hate my life.
Oh, my gorsh! I forgot the right to choose!
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2025/03/texas-arrests-aboriton-provider
I have watched some of the video of the people ICE deported straight to prison in El Salvidor with zero due process on either end. And it's been overlooked that we are paying El Salvador to hold them without due process. It feels to me like Trump is testing the scheme of outsourcing prison to foreign countries without Habius Corpus. Can he apply it to political enemies?
This has bugged me – that Trump has ZERO chance of getting a trial for any of the J6 committee or Jack Smith. He can charge without evidence but when it hits a judge, selected at random (or upon appealif he can rig the first appearance) there won't be probable cause for the case to go to trial and the judge will dismiss and order the defendant released. But Trump is trying to void the pardons so he CAN charge people in government who investigated the first coup attempt.
Revenge is Number One on Trump's list. Musk has a different agenda – so does Vance. People from Project 2025 are following their playbook. But Bondi and Patel were selected for the virtue of blind obedience to twist the DOJ to be an instrument of political reprisal. (Which Biden never did.) I predict the issue of arresting members of Congress who are speaking out against Trump will occur sooner rather than later.
If Trump opens up Gitmo for political enemies and he ignores the orders of any judge (including the USSC) to release political prisoners, who enforces an order? Nobody. But a move to detain enemies robs the administration of any hint of legitimacy to all but the most deluded MAGA folks. The GOP members of Congress will have to declare that Trump's acts are illegal of be forever tarred for supporting him. I'm looking at the 2026 election. If the economy had tanked and Trump is engaged in blatantly illegal and indefensible actions, "high crimes and misdemeanors" is a matter of fact. If Vance has actively supported the detention, is he also impeachable?
With the Democrats caving on the CR, they have given Trump money for more illegal deportations, but where will the Gestapo come from? The roundup of people has to be done by able-bodied people. Trump has to turn to the military – again, illegal.
We're two weeks away from the next round of tariffs – this time for sure! Wall Street does not like it, the decline of the Dow is a predictor of a rise in unemployment and a return of inflation. There's no indication that Trump will back off that issue – he believes in free money through tariffs. There will be a point of no return. We're not there yet, but if Trump drives down the economy OR violates Habius Corpus in defiance of even the USSC, he'll be in too deep to retreat. He'll have to go for a complete military coup – win or blow your brains out like Hitler.
There's two elements that successful dictatorships established on the way to dominance that are missing for Trump. First, ownership of the media. Putin and Orban established this either before the takeover or concurrently. Trump hasn't and he can't because social media has overtaken traditional media. The truth will out. Second, other takeovers have capitalized on a depression (like Germany 1930). Trump will in fact take a good economy and turn it very bad, concurrent with the takeover. That's not good for raising popular support. Third, (I can't count.) if the USSC declares Trump's defiance of the court to be a violation of the Constitution. will the military below the Joint Chiefs participate in a takeover?
While your analysis is spot on, this is a terrifying post. In the now recent past, I really liked the security and peace of mind being in the "free world", but now it looks like we all have to learn to watch our thought crimes and not risk being a "bad person" according to the orange freedom people. Wheeeeeee we are so freeeeeeee!