Since returning to office, President Trump has faced what can only be described as a judicial coup. Through the use of overreaching nationwide injunctions, predominantly Democrat-appointed judges have gleefully granted requests from left-wing activists to block enforcement of the agenda 77 million Americans voted for last year.

Yet, despite this egregious affront to America’s constitutional framework, Trump and his administration are neglecting to stop it.

The latest example of the administration’s refusal to uphold separation of powers is its ongoing battle with a Massachusetts-based federal judge over the president’s deportation of illegal aliens to so-called “third countries.” After District Judge Brian Murphy placed a sweeping injunction blocking the policy’s enforcement, the administration appealed to the Supreme Court, which temporarily stayed the Biden appointee’s order on Monday.

In a stunning act of rebellion against the justices, Murphy — seemingly believing his power usurps that of SCOTUS — issued a separate edict hours after the high court’s ruling in which he declared his initial order “remains in full force and effect.” The judge further claimed, “The District Court’s remedial orders [were] not properly before the [Supreme] Court because the Government has not appealed them, or sought a stay pending a forthcoming appeal.”

So, what did Trump and his administration do?

While U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer correctly characterized Murphy’s power grab as a “lawless act of defiance,” the administration continued to grant the rogue judge’s order legitimacy it doesn’t have. Instead of implementing the president’s policy and telling Murphy to pound sand, team Trump went running back to SCOTUS to ask the justices to “clarify” their Monday stay on the judge’s initial injunction.

But there’s nothing to “clarify.” The high court already spoke on the matter, and there’s no logical or legal reason the administration shouldn’t be executing Trump’s directives — irrespective of what Murphy claims.

Trump and his team’s “strategy,” as it seems, is to continue following the same playbook previously disclosed by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. When asked by Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway last month about how the administration plans to confront the judicial coup undermining the president’s executive authority, Leavitt said that the game plan is to “comply with the courts’ orders” and “win on the merits of these cases.”

In other words, the administration is going to continue granting the premise that what these rogue judges are doing is lawful and the notion that the judiciary has the final say on matters of law and public policy in America — otherwise known as judicial supremacy.

Except, that’s not the system of government the Founding Fathers had in mind when drafting the Constitution. If anything, framers like Alexander Hamilton viewed the judiciary as the weakest of the three branches, as it lacks the “sword” of the executive and the “purse” of the legislature and relies “upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments.”

Contrary to claims made by Chief Justice John Roberts, the courts are not supreme to the other two branches. And just because its members choose to violate the Constitution does not mean the executive and legislative are required to follow suit.

As president, Trump has an obligation to abide by the nation’s founding document. It is he who is granted Article II authority to execute the nation’s laws — not rogue judges seeking to usurp such powers.

As Justice Samuel Alito recently observed, federal matters involving nationwide injunctions “may take two or three years before it could come up” to the Supreme Court to be fully adjudicated. That would mean that by the time cases involving the Trump administration reach the high court for final rulings, Trump’s second term would effectively be over.

The longer Trump continues to play along with leftists’ judicial coup, the longer the votes of those who supported him last year will be rendered meaningless, thus ending a presidency before it could even begin.