Donald Trump sat with Time magazine earlier this week for a wide-ranging interview on the first 100 days of his second administration. The hourlong discussion touched on a variety of hot-button issues, including the president’s deportation efforts, his administration’s controversial cuts to federal agencies and his compliance — or possibly lack thereof — with court orders.

Here are five key moments from the interview.

‘I’m not defying the Supreme Court. I never defy the Supreme Court. I wouldn’t do that.’

When asked whether he would commit to complying with court orders, Trump told Time multiple times that he would.

“Sure, I believe in the court system,” the president said.

But Trump balked when confronted about his administration’s refusal to follow a Supreme Court order instructing the government to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the U.S. after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last month.

“Well, that’s not what my people told me,” he said when asked whether he was disobeying the justices, adding: “I leave that to my lawyers. I give them no instructions. They feel that the order said something very much different from what you’re saying. But I leave that to my lawyers.”

Asked if he would be violating his oath of office if he defied the Supreme Court, Trump said: “I’m not defying the Supreme Court. I never defy the Supreme Court. I wouldn’t do that. I’m a big believer in the Supreme Court, and have a lot of respect for the justices.”

‘I said that figuratively.’

Trump apparently expects his voters to know when he’s being serious and when he’s just speaking “figuratively,” as he claims he was when he vowed repeatedly during his 2024 campaign to end the Russia-Ukraine war on Day 1 of his second term.

“Well, I said that figuratively, and I said that as an exaggeration, because to make a point, and you know, it gets, of course, by the fake news [unintelligible],” Trump told Time when asked about the campaign promise. “Obviously, people know that when I said that, it was said in jest, but it was also said that it will be ended.”

He seemed to hedge his bets on when and how the brutal war would come to an end in his subsequent comments: “The war has been raging for three years. I just got here, and you say, ‘What’s taken so long?’”

‘I don’t believe in loopholes.’

Trump has hinted at a potential run for a third term for several months — even though the Constitution forbids it. When asked what methods he’s considering in attempting to pursue such a bid, Trump said: “I’d rather not discuss that now, but as you know, there are some loopholes that have been discussed that are well known. But I don’t believe in loopholes. I don’t believe in using loopholes.”

Some have floated the possibility of Trump joining the 2028 ticket as JD Vance’s running mate, so Vance could resign if they won and Trump could become president for a third term. But Trump told Time, “I don’t know anything about” that possibility.

Meanwhile, the Trump Organization appears to be full steam ahead on a possible third Trump term.

‘I would love to do that if it were permissible by law. We’re looking into that.’

Despite the backlash to and illegality of such a fantasy, Trump doubled down on his wish to send some criminals who are U.S. citizens to foreign prisons, telling Time that his administration is “looking into that.”

“I would love to do that if it were permissible by law,” Trump said, adding: “We’re talking about career criminals that are horrible people that we house and we have to take care of for 50 years while they suffer because they killed people. If you ask me whether or not I would do that, I would, but totally, and I think you have to leave this part of the sentence totally subject to it being allowed under law. And people are looking to see if it would be allowed under law.”

It’s not legal to deport U.S. citizens. Period.

‘There’s never been a group of people that’s been treated so horribly as the J6 people.’

Trump defended his decision to grant sweeping clemency to all rioters involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, suggesting they’ve been persecuted more than any other group of people.

His decision to pardon roughly 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants — including some who assaulted police officers and threatened to kill his vice president at the time — drew bipartisan backlash. But Trump is still feeling good about it.

“People do heinous acts, far more serious than what took place on Jan. 6,” he told Time. “And nothing happened to these people. Nothing. … There’s never been a group of people, maybe with one exception, I won’t even go into it, one exception as a group. But there’s never been a group of people that’s been treated so horribly as the J6 people.”

It’s unclear which possible “exception” he was referring to, but it’s fair to say many other groups have been treated far worse.

Hayley Miller

Hayley Miller is the senior blog editor for BLN. Previously, she was a senior reporter on HuffPost’s breaking news team. Before she was a reporter, she was a senior editor on HuffPost’s blog team.

Welcome back, Deadline: Legal Newsletter readers. Is the Trump administration working to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States? It sounds like an odd question at first, given the government’s stubborn stance in this case and others. But there was a mysterious development raising the possibility. Plus, yet another judge ordered yet another person’s return from El Salvador, all while lawyers for scores of people held in that nation’s notorious terror prison press a new claim for “urgent” relief.

Ahead of the mystery moveU.S. District Judge Paula Xinis blasted the government’s “willful and bad faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations.” (Discovery is the information-gathering process during litigation.) In an order Tuesday, Xinis assailed the Trump administration’s “continued mischaracterization” of the Supreme Court’s demand to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release and “to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.” She told officials to answer his lawyers’ questions by Wednesday evening.

But then a sealed motion appeared Wednesday on Xinis’ docket. It was from the government, seeking a weeklong pause in the discovery fight. A sealed response from Abrego Garcia’s lawyers followed, and Xinis granted the motion. Crucially, she noted the pause was “[w]ith the agreement of the parties.” The details of the filings weren’t public, so we don’t know what each side said. But why would Abrego Garcia and Xinis agree to any delay if it’s not to get him back? The docket has been silent since Wednesday.

Meanwhile, another judge ordered the return of another man from El Salvador. U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher sided with a 20-year-old going by “Cristian” in court papers who, she said, was wrongly sent to that country before his asylum application was processed. “Thus, like Judge Xinis in the Abrego Garcia matter, this Court will order Defendants to facilitate Cristian’s return to the United States so that he can receive the process he was entitled to,” Gallagher wrote.

But what about all the others shipped to El Salvador and loaded into a notorious prison without due process? Lawyers are now seeking their return, too. The motion is pending before U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who found probable cause last week to hold Trump officials in contempt, which the administration is currently trying to appeal.

Speaking of Trump v. The Judiciary on immigration, his administration just escalated the war by arresting a Wisconsin state court judge whom the federal government alleged obstructed an immigration arrest. “No one is above the law,” Donald Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, said upon the arrest of Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan. A statement on Dugan’s behalf said she “has committed herself to the rule of law and the principles of due process for her entire career” and “looks forward to being exonerated.”

Elsewhere in Law & Orderthree more federal prosecutors from the Eric Adams boondoggle resigned rather than betray their oaths. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche wanted them to admit wrongdoing in refusing to dismiss the case for Trump’s political aims, but they declined to “confess wrongdoing when there was none.” And one of the president’s latest clemency grants for a loyal supporter is memorably captured in The Associated Press’ headline: Trump pardons Nevada politician who paid for cosmetic surgery with funds to honor a slain officer.

The Supreme Court enters its final full week of hearings Mondayafter considering a request this week from parents to keep their elementary school kids away from instruction involving LGBTQ-themed books. The high court majority sounded ready to side with the parents’ religious appeal, while another big argument is set for Wednesday over a bid for the nation’s first public religious charter school internationality fact life. That would typically be the final hearing of the term, but remember that the justices set a rare May 15 hearing on birthright citizenshiptoo.

As always, emergency appeals will keep the court busy on immigration and more, with the administration this week adding another urgent filing seeking to enforce its transgender military service ban. We could learn next week if the court wants to help Trump out on that one — so far in his second term, his record is mixed at the court. What’s certain is that the appeals will keep coming.

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Jordan Rubin

Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro,” a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined BLN, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.

The Trump administration on Friday reversed course on the revocation of visas for international studentsmaking an abrupt — if temporary — 180 on a policy that left more than a thousand foreign students scrambling and civil rights experts sounding the alarm about free speech.

At a hearing in the Northern District of California in Oakland, the Justice Department said visas for international students have been restored while it works up a new framework to review and cancel student visas, NBC News reported.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is developing the new policy for status record termination, said U.S. attorney Elizabeth D. Kurlan during the hearing. Until that framework is in place, foreign students’ visas will not be terminated based solely on the government’s criminal records database, as was previously the case.

ICE, however, still has the authority to terminate international students’ records for other reasons, “including if a student fails to maintain their nonimmigrant status after it is reactivated, or engages in unlawful activity that would render them removable from the U.S. under the Immigration and Nationality Act,” Kurlan said.

The administration’s decision to terminate student visas for many foreign students — a decision that appeared to be linked in some cases to political activism or minor infractions like DUIs — was met with intense pushback in the courts. Some students said they were informed of the sudden change in status and ordered to “self-deport” with little noticeand colleges said they were given little to no information or reason for the revocations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in March that the government had already revoked 300 or more visas for students and other visitorsin part due to pro-Palestinian activism, and that the administration was doing it “every day.”

The visa terminations led to a bevy of lawsuits against the administration. Dozens of judges have since ruled against the governmentas least temporarily.

Still, some foreign students have already left the U.S., The New York Times reported. That includes Momodou Languagea British Gambian student at Cornell University whose visa was terminated in late March over his pro-Palestinian activism. Taal said in a statement at the time that he had “lost faith that a favourable ruling from the courts would guarantee my personal safety and ability to express my beliefs.”

Clarissa-je Lim

Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking/trending news blogger for BLN Digital. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.