President Trump's first defeat

It’s too early to say how the politics of all this will play out, but as a sheer matter of governance, it augurs poorly. Other administrations might have carefully briefed reporters on the details of the new policy, prepared the public, put exemptions in place, clarified exactly who would be affected. They might have crafted an outreach strategy to key allies to explain the president’s reasoning and hear out any concerns. The Trump team seems to have done none of that.

White House aides briefing the press on Saturday afternoon claimed they had worked for weeks with key officials in the relevant agencies, but there were few signs of that. The Department of Homeland Security first said the ban applied to green card holders (i.e. permanent legal residents); then walked it back. Aides later said that green card holders would have to submit to a consular interview before exiting the United States, but nobody has explained exactly how that works. And the top State Department official in charge of consular affairs, veteran Foreign Service officer Michele Bond, was fired last week.

The Trump administration also seemed surprisingly unprepared to argue its case in court. During her hearing, Judge Donnelly reportedly asked the government’s lawyers whether they considered if those detained—about 200 people, in the ACLU’s estimation—would suffer harm if they were sent back to their home countries. When they didn’t come up with a persuasive answer, she responded, “I think the government hasn’t had a full chance to think about this.”