What a difference a day makes.
Less than 24 hours after an angry Trump tweeted "SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!" in the aftermath of yesterday's adverse Appeals Court ruling...
SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2017
... the President has changed his mind and has decided not to see anyone in court - if only for the time being - because according to NBC, his administration is not currently planning to appeal the temporary hold on his travel ban to the Supreme Court, a White House official said Friday.
WH does *not plan to take temp restraining order on immigration EO to SCOTUS, will focus on defending order on merits, per WH official
— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) February 10, 2017
The official noted, however, that the White House said it will forge ahead on the broader battle against a lawsuit challenging the executive order, if out of court.
Which means, that as per the steps we laid out last night, the administration will now prepare a brand new immigration order. Trump hinted as much earlier in the day when during his press conference with Abe, he said "We’ll be doing something very rapidly having to do with additional security for our country; you’ll be seeing that sometime next week," Trump said with Abe by his side. He offered no specifics.
He then added "we are going to keep our country safe," he said on Friday. "We are going to do whatever’s necessary to keep our country safe." He added he would continue to fight for the travel ban in courts, and that "ultimately, I have no doubt we will win that particular case."
As a result, the most likely next step out of the White House is that Trump will issue a new executive order that explicitly omits green-card holders from the travel ban in an effort to head off legal challenges.