In 2025, a sitting US president openly defying the courts is considered “low-key.”
this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2025
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It's low key in the sense that Trump seems to have been prepared to disobey the order, but it never took effect. The order was "pay people what you owe them by Wednesday at 11:59pm," and the Trump admin got an order from the Supreme Court pausing that requirement until further notice.
What's notable is that Trump's lawyer said "yes we know we have to comply with court orders but this one is literally impossible to comply with in time," which is the type of position that makes a token gesture towards complying, while also showing that they weren't going to comply in time.
"Low-key" as in he's found a relatively low-key way to defy a judge's order. Any kind of defying a judge's order is of course a very dramatic action.
Low key? There is no Low Key defying a court order. There’s only right out CONTEMPT, Trump should be in jail? Why should be alone be above the law?
"Official acts."
That protects Trump, not the people following illegal orders. At least office immunity doesn't extend to the entire executive anywhere else in the world as far as I know.
Immunity for official acts is supposed to prevent the judges from doing a coup by arresting elected politicians, not to give the executive powers to ignore the other branches.
Pardons, selective lack of prosecution, weak sentencing, failure to convict.
Next?
Official act would be complying with the Judge…but potatoe, patatoe…or whatever.
And yes, I spelled potatoe wrong both times on purpose.
SCOTUS ruled that a president cannot be criminally charged for any "official acts" taken while in office.
"when the president does it, it isn't illegal"
"They just let you do it"
Did that ruling not also leave it up to the courts to determine what constitutes an official act?
So that it can go up to SCOTUS again, yes.
Contempt is a civil charge no? So can't they still throw him in a cell?
There are both civil and criminal contempt. Doesn't matter though, since then we get back to "official acts," which would end up at SCOTUS, who would just wave it off no matter what it was about.
Did you misspell it the third time on purpose?
Yes. Why not.
Just asking because you only specified the first two. Thanks for clarifying.
He should have been jailed for contempt on many occasions over the last 3-4 years, but somehow he seems to be immune to the normal rules, even when he isn't the sitting president.
I agree with this if anybody would less than $35,000 per year decided to disregarded judge over a parking ticket they would’ve gotten a harsher punishment. Then Trump got in all of his legal woes combined. 
Low-key defiance? Call it what it is: a power grab wrapped in procedural foot-dragging.
😾😾
Well, thanks to the supreme court, it's all legal, right?
Only if it's a power of the executive branch defined in the constitution. The SC interprets this, and they've already sided against him a few times.
They're power hungry traitors, and power hungry traitors don't take kindly to people trying to undermine their power.
The Modern Media:
"How about we don't make a big fuss or devote too much time to this, instead let's report it like a niche rap album that everyone's sleeping on".
"Lowkey Trump's high crimes and treason is the best album y'all been sleeping on."
DO YOUR JOB MEDIA! The reason things aren't getting news coverage is because you're choosing not to make them an issue! You're supposed to be BROADCASTING HIS WRONG DOINGS, AND PUSHING SHAME ON REPUBLICANS ENABLING HIM.
They're so damn complicit in minimizing his crimes. They're why his supporters don't know jack shit. What responsible media outlet refers to a President defying the law as a "low key" event??? It's insane!!!
I guess the definition for low key has lost all meaning.
“Low-key” is to Gen Z as “literally” is to Millennials. It doesn’t actually convey meaning, it’s a signifier that the person speaking uses a specific generational dialect. It’s a word you throw in that sounds like it makes what you’re saying more meaningful, but really just makes it sound infuriating to anyone outside your linguistic norms.
That's why I stopped saying it, low key.
Imagine 'President low key selling nuclear secrets to Iran'
"President low key shooting someone in the face on 5th Avenue"
Talking Points Memo isn't really an appropriate source for unbiased news...
As much as I agree with a lot of what they say.
How so? They obviously have an editorial line but they never make any factual claims that aren't true.
The fact that it's editorial. I mean, bias doesn't automatically mean bad information. I'm only saying that this is a news community and TPM would be more appropriate in a politics community.
But whatever. You do you.
This is a news piece not an editorial. "Editorial line" means they have a publicly shared opinion on what's happening, not that they're not doing hard news.
Why would a dick tator obey a judges ruling? That's why he is firing all the lawyers.