Spicer: Trump 'respects the judicial branch'

President Donald Trump unquestionably “respects the judicial branch and its ruling,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday, an assertion at odds with the president’s recent attack on the judge who rebuked his sweeping travel ban.

In a series of weekend tweets, Trump called U.S. District Court Judge James Robart a “so-called judge” whose “ridiculous” and “terrible” ruling effectively blocking his travel ban is to blame if the nation experiences a terrorist attack.


Spicer, however, apparently saw the president’s criticism differently.

“There’s no question the president respects the judicial branch and its ruling,” Spicer told reporters.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments by phone on Tuesday evening, but Spicer expressed confidence in the Trump administration’s defense of the constitutionality of its executive order barring immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations.

He read aloud a section of the U.S. code as evidence that Trump’s order is lawful.

“I don’t think there’s any other way that you can interpret that, that the president has the discretion to do what’s necessary to keep this country safe,” he said. “And I think that’s his concern, frankly, right now, is that when the law is such as it is, that anyone could interpret that in any other way. I think he feels confident, just like in the ruling in Boston, that we’re gonna prevail on this on the merits of the case because it is done so in a very lawful way.”