The whole world is well aware of the United States President’s fondness for the social media site, Twitter. His penchant for shooting off whatever thoughts cross his mind has been a source of anger and humor (#covfefe) for the nation. Thus far, the backlash from trump’s Twitter rants has been mostly from media, but no real political repercussions. Trump may have finally tweeted the tweet that gets him in trouble.
Trump Tweets
Monday morning, Trump posted a series of Twitter posts that could have damaged his chances of having the Supreme Court reinstate his executive order that limited travel from six Muslim countries.
The order received pushback when Trump first announced it, causing him to have to rewrite the order and reintroduce it in March. Even the watered-down version caused waves, getting bogged down in the courts. After being barred in federal appeals courts, the White House took the battle to the Supreme Court.
On Twitter, Trump stated that “the lawyers and the courts can call it whatever they want, but I am calling it what we need and what it is a travel ban!”
Several hours later, he sent out another tweet that said: “That’s right, we need a TRAVEL BAN for certain DANGEROUS countries, not some politically correct term that won’t help us protect our people.”
Trump’s tweets poke holes in his own lawyers’ defense in their battle at the Supreme Court.
A key talking point for the defense has been that the executive order was not a ban but rather a temporary restriction on travel. Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that the executive order was “not a ban,” but a “vetting system to keep America safe.”
Reactions
George Conway, who was Trump’s nominee for assistant attorney general before withdrawing his own nominations, commented on Trump’s posts with a tweet of his own.
“These tweets may make some ppl feel better,” he wrote, “but they certainly won’t help [the Office of the Solicitor General] get five votes in [the Supreme Court], which is what actually matters.”
David Rivkin, who was a lawyer for Reagan and Bush (41), said that Trump’s tweets shouldn’t be considered by the Supreme Court, stating that “As a constitutional matter, as a legal matter, it should make absolutely no difference.
Neal Katyal, representing Hawaii in a separate court challenge to the order, pointed out the huge gap between Trump’s tweets and his lawyers’ filings. Kaytal referenced how all of Trump’s tweets called the order a travel ban. The tweets also contradict what White House staff members have been saying about the order. Both Spicer and secretary of homeland security John Kelly have said the executive order is “not a travel ban.”
In another of his tweets, Trump promised that “in any event, we are EXTREME VETTING people coming into the U.S. in order to help keep our country safe.” There has been no elaboration as to what this method of “extreme vetting” would be. In March, Trump told a rally of supporters that he thinks he should “go back to the first [order] and go all the way… which is what I wanted to do in the first place.”
