However elusive President Donald Trump may be with the media, he is certainly comfortable letting down his hair on Twitter.
Trump once again took to his favorite social media channel on Monday, explaining to his followers exactly how he sees his blocked executive order-one that may soon find its way to the highest court in the land.
The president called his order a travel ban in plain terms and took umbrage with having, as he called it, to ameliorate terms in the order to become more politically correct.
The tweets will assuredly galvanize his base of supporters but it hardly did the Justice Department and its legal counsel any favors as it prepares for a likely battle before the Supreme Court.
[CALLOUT]
In another series of late-night tweets, Trump wrote:
His social media barrage continued:
Trump then continued, promising to affect travel regardless of the court's decision:
The president was quick to reference his executive order amid a terror attack in London that left seven dead and 48 wounded Saturday night:
The problem for Trump, his staff and advisors is this contradicts months of rhetoric.
As TravelPulse's Monica Poling reminded, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer previously stated on the first iteration of the travel ban: "It's not a Muslim ban. It's not a travel ban. It's a vetting system to keep America safe."
The second iteration of Trump's executive order concentrated on just six predominantly Muslim countries rather than seven. Yet, it's also, according to the man who signed it, a travel ban.
There are those who believe you can't put much credence into tweets. As Newsweek reports, White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway deflected them while speaking on "Today." She stated that the media has an "obsession with covering everything he says on Twitter and very little of what he does as president."
The issue here is an obvious one: The tweets are words delivered directly by the president, laying out thoughts and opinions that shape his policies.
The major hurdle this places on legal counsel is best spelled out by Conway's husband, who explained via Twitter:
Business Insider quoted William Stock, the president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, who explained the key phrase here is 'watered down,' which suggests the administration took language out specifically to sell it as something it's not.
Stock stated that the tweets: "undercut the government's arguments that the administration only promulgated the bans to allow for 'extreme vetting' of visa applicants, and show that the president still thinks of the orders as a continuation - though now 'watered down and politically correct' - of his call for a Muslim ban.
"The whole series of tweets is relevant, to the extent that the Supreme Court is willing to go beyond a superficial determination that the two bans were issued for a 'facially legitimate and bona fide' reason."
The terms used by the president certainly suggest the travel ban has been massaged to make it more palatable to the courts while still existing as a travel ban that would affect a specific demographic.
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Some have argued Trump's spoken and tweeted words prior to his inauguration should be inadmissible. These people will now find very little substantive argument in keeping more recent posts from a potential hearing before the Supreme Court.
The intriguing aspect in all this is that Trump may very well have had a puncher's chance before the highest court if he could possibly get out of his own way.
With a series of posts, the commander-in-tweet may have sealed the fate of his own coveted executive order, er, travel ban.
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