Trump sent a planeload of illegal alien criminals to be held in El Salvador's vibrant and diverse prisons. A federal judge decided he's the Commander in Chief now and ordered the plane to return.
Trump said "whoops, the plane's gone too far, can't call it back now, gee willickers sorry."
And the left is having a nervous breakdown.
Exclusive: 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.
Why it matters: The administration's decision to defy a federal judge's order is exceedingly rare and highly controversial.
"Court order defied. First of many as I've been warning and start of true constitutional crisis," national security attorney Mark S. Zaid, a Trump critic, wrote on X, adding that Trump could ultimately get impeached.
LOL. They thirst for a constitutional crisis like they thirst for racism and "white supremacy."
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."
...
"There was a discussion about how far the judge's ruling can go under the circumstances and over international waters and, on advice of counsel, we proceeded with deporting these thugs," the senior official said.
"They were already outside of US airspace. We believe the order is not applicable," a second senior administration official told Axios.
"The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist [Tren de Aragua] aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory," Leavitt said. "The written order and the Administration's actions do not conflict."
"Moreover, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear -- federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over the President's conduct of foreign affairs, his authorities under the Alien Enemies Act, and his core Article II powers to remove foreign alien terrorists from U.S. soil and repel a declared invasion," Leavitt added. "A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil."
On Sunday, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele responded to Boasberg's order by joking, "Oopsie... too late," in an X post. He also shared footage of heavily-armed Salvadorean authorities escorting the alleged gang members off the planes, shaving their heads and rounding them up in their prison cells.
A total of 261 illegal aliens were deported from the U.S. to El Salvador yesterday -- 137 of which were through the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, 101 others were Venezuelans removed via Title 8 and another 21 were Salvadoran MS-13 gang members. Two others were MS-13 ringleaders and "special cases" for El Salvador.
A senior Trump administration official confirmed the numbers to Fox News on Sunday, explaining that the migrants' alleged crimes included kidnapping, sexual abuse of a child, aggravated assault, prostitution, robbery and aggravated assault of a police officer.