A former Republican congressman speculated that president Donald Trump was fighting the courts to keep a Maryland man imprisoned in El Salvador as a distraction from an even more unpopular move.
U.S. District judge Paula Xinis ordered sworn testimony from Trump administration officials to determine whether they complied with her orders to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to a notorious high-security prison overseas, and former GOP congressman Charlie Dent told "CNN This Morning" why he thinks the president was picking that fight.
"Well, I have a kind of cynical view about this whole issue," Dent said. "I tend to think that Donald Trump would like nothing more than to talk about this issue ad nauseam, about whether or not a person who entered the United States unlawfully should be returned from his native country."
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Dent argued that the president was defying the courts to turn attention away from his sweeping tariffs against virtually all U.S. trading partners that has rattled the stock market and lopped nearly 10 percent off the dollar.
"Setting aside all the facts in the court orders, I think he's doing it because he'd rather be talking about this than the stock market tumbling, the bond market being volatile," Dent said. "Farmers can't find export markets for their their product, consumers are worried about the price of everything from cars to to sneakers, so I think this is a great deflection from the issues that are really driving a lot of people in this country crazy right now."
The president's approval rating sunk to 44 percent in a new UMass poll, compared to 51 percent who disapprove – including 44 percent who "strongly disapprove" of his tenure so far – although he still enjoys a 50 percent-46 percent advantage on his handling of immigration issues.
However, nearly two-thirds of respondents, or 62 percent, don't think Trump is doing enough to fight inflation, and 58 percent told pollsters he was mishandling his trade policy.