Mediaite founder Dan Abrams tore into the growing narrative among members of the Trump administration that defying a Supreme Court order is no big deal or even has historical precedent — warning the move is nothing short of “dangerous.”

On his show on Tuesday on SiriusXM’s POTUS channel and Mediaite’s YouTube channel, Abrams tore down claims that former presidents like Joe Biden, Andrew Jackson, or Abraham Lincoln had ignored Supreme Court rulings and warned the Trump team against pushing “nonsense” in their attempt at “softening the ground” around open defiance of judicial authority.

At issue is the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported from Maryland to El Salvador’s CECOT gang superprison last month as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy. The case escalated to the Supreme Court, which unanimously ordered the government “facilitate” Garcia’s return. The administration, however, has stalled on fulfilling that order.

Despite the fact that the Trump administration initially acknowledged Garcia’s deportation was an “administrative error” in court, they have since argued he’s a violent MS-13 gang member — a claim rooted in an informant’s accusation from six years ago — and ranking members of the Trump administration, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, have even publicly dismissed need for the administration to follow the Supreme Court’s ruling.

During a televised Oval Office press event Bondi said it was “up to El Salvador” to return Garcia, adding: “That’s not up to us.”

Abrams mocked that claim as laughable:

The idea that the U.S. could not get Garcia back by simply asking for him is absurd. We are paying for the prison space. El Salvador is a tiny Central American country with roughly the population of Missouri. They’d comply in three seconds if the U.S. made a serious request for the return of a prisoner.

He added:

There is no ambiguity. They must facilitate his release from custody. Not give him a ride back if he is released… The administration has made no effort whatsoever and doesn’t intend to do so.

What concerns Abrams most, however, isn’t just the refusal to act on the order — it’s the narrative being manufactured to justify it:

When JD Vance, or Alina Habba, or anyone else in the Trump administration talks so openly about defying the courts, and they try to normalize it by saying other presidents have done it, let’s be clear: That’s not true. What they are talking about is completely uncharted territory. What they are talking about is creating a constitutional crisis. And believe me, I don’t use that phrase lightly. There are others who say we’re already in a constitutional crisis – no! We’re only in a consitiutional crisis if the court’s rulings are not enforced. Particular, the high court.

Running back clips, Abrams dismantled the narrative bit by bit.

After showing a runback of Habba recently telling Fox News that “the executive branch is the ultimate authority on federal issues,” Abrams countered bluntly: “Uhh, no. Article III of the Constitution makes it very clear that the judicial branch has the authority to decide the constitutionality of federal laws, not the executive branch.”

As for the argument that Biden defied the Supreme Court over student loans, pushed by Fox News host Todd Piro and Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), among others, Abrams offered flat correction: “Biden never defied the Supreme Court’s ruling. He actually complied with it fully.”

After the Court struck down his use of the HEROES Act to cancel student debt, Biden dropped that approach and tried new, narrower programs — some of which were upheld, others not. That’s not defiance, Abrams argued — it’s lawful adaptation. The host pointed out that “Trump has done that on many occasions” in reaction to a court rebuttal.

Abrams also addressed the invocation of Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. Both are regularly cited by Trump allies, including Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Vance, to justify the administration’s stance.

Now putting aside that many scholars believe Jackson’s comments were apocryphal and he never actually even said that. In that case, it was the state of Georgia which defied the ruling. They were the named party in the case, not the federal government. They were the ones who removed the Cherokee people from their land. They defied the ruling knowing that President Jackson wouldn’t stop them. But it was Georgia—not the president—who defied that court order.

And here, JD Vance and others in the administration are talking about something different: openly about defying a court order. That’s very different from not trying to help enforce a ruling, as Andrew Jackson did.

But Abrams didn’t let Democrats off the hook either — blasting years of rhetoric from the left that has chipped away at public faith in the judiciary. Abrams played comments from Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), former Rep. Jamaal Bowman, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) attacking the Court’s legitimacy.

They have helped pave the way for this kind of assault on the judicial branch by attacking the credibility of the Supreme Court for years… railing against a court they saw as overly politicized.

Still, Abrams pointed to a Marquette poll from earlier this month showing 83% of Americans believe the president must follow Supreme Court decisions — a sign, Abrams argued, that the public remains firmly on the side of constitutional norms.

The host left viewers and the Trump administration with a warning:

You can’t just cherry pick the rulings you want to follow, and ignore the ones you don’t… That leads us down a very dangerous road… a road that, despite what many on the right would tell you, we have never traveled down before.

Watch above via YouTube.

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