'Sure to cause headaches': Analysis warns Trump's eyebrow-raising excuse 'invites a clash'

President Donald Trump made a damning admission during this week's sit-down interview with ABC News' Terry Moran about the Kilmar Abrego Garcia immigration case, that could land his administration in further trouble with the judge overseeing the matter, Andrew McCarthy wrote for the National Review on Wednesday.

Abrego Garcia, a Maryland family man who immigrated to the United States illegally, was disappeared to the infamous Salvadoran CECOT megaprison despite having never been convicted of a crime and despite having a protective court order barring his removal to that country. The case has become a flashpoint that helped sour voters on Trump's mass deportation policy, and multiple courts have now ordered him to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return.

The administration insists, through third-party allegations, that he is a criminal gang member with a history of domestic abuse, all of which Abrego Garcia denies — but additionally, Trump also insists he has no legal authority to order Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to return him. However, McCarthy wrote, Trump let slip a different story on the case as Moran grilled him.

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When Moran asked if he would call Bukele to negotiate Abrego Garcia's return, Trump replied, “If he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that. But he is not.”

And that, wrote McCarthy, is a big problem for Trump as he continues to argue in court before U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis that he is complying with all legal orders on the case.

"To comply with the Supreme Court’s April 10 order — which was for the government 'to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador' — Trump would have to be willing to engage diplomatically on the subject with the Salvadoran government. Trump is adamant that he will not do so," wrote McCarthy.

"The president’s acknowledgment that he could intercede with Bukele to get Abrego Garcia back is sure to cause headaches for the Justice Department," he wrote. "Its lawyers have maintained that the federal government is powerless to return Abrego Garcia because he is exclusively under Bukele’s control. Not surprisingly, Trump couldn’t bring himself to say that he can’t countermand the Salvadoran president. Yet, by saying he could do it but won’t, he is inviting a clash with Judge Xinis, to whom the DOJ is supposed to resume reporting today on the administration’s efforts to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return."