President Donald Trump still had the Supreme Court on his mind on Friday morning, the day after the high court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the administration’s attempted rescission of Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy ran afoul of the Administrative Procedure Act. The president said that the decision was neither a loss nor a win.
Here’s what Trump said:
The Supreme Court asked us to resubmit on DACA, nothing was lost or won. They “punted”, much like in a football game (where hopefully they would stand for our great American Flag). We will be submitting enhanced papers shortly in order to properly fulfil the Supreme Court’s ruling & request of yesterday. I have wanted to take care of DACA recipients better than the Do Nothing Democrats, but for two years they refused to negotiate – They have abandoned DACA. Based on the decision the Dems can’t make DACA citizens. They gained nothing! @DHSgov
It certainly wasn’t a win when the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration unlawfully went about repealing DACA. The president appears to have recognized this in a series of Thursday tweets:
But—and it seems this is what Trump is saying—the decision wasn’t exactly a loss because the Supreme Court did not say the words: You can’t rescind DACA. Trump interpreted that as a “punt” on a politically charged issue.
Chief Justice John Roberts’s opinion arguably represents a roadmap for the Trump administration on how to successfully end DACA. The president said that his administration “will be submitting enhanced papers shortly in order to properly fulfil [sic] the Supreme Court’s ruling & request of yesterday.”
The question, at this point, is one of time and re-electability.
[Image via Doug Mills/The New York Times]