MSNBC's Rachel Maddow warns Trump may 'effectively declare war' on US after looming ruling

The stark possibility of President Donald Trump potentially ignoring a court order sparked by his administration’s foreign aid freeze could explode into a full-on constitutional crisis — “and effectively end the republic,” Rachel Maddow said Thursday night as she delivered an ominous warning to viewers.

“They have been joking about this and making, you know, macho sounding bluffs about this for a long time now – particularly from the vice president – J.D. Vance,” Maddow said Thursday. “How is the Supreme Court going to deal with it now that it's real?”

The MSNBC host delved into possible scenarios in the opening minutes of her top-rated show that could develop depending on how the Supreme Court weighs in on the very real prospect that Trump could openly defy a court order – what she described as a “very scary issue.”

The high court, whose ultra-conservative majority was hand selected by Trump, is set to take up the case Friday at the request of government attorneys eager to find a way out of U.S. District Judge Amir Ali’s order to unfreeze funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.

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“Do they try to give him what he wants from the courts so that Trump doesn't break that glass? Doesn't, you know, smash through the brightest bright line that we have and effectively end the republic?” she pondered. “Do they appease him because they – ‘oh, he's so scary, we better not make him defy a court order – we better make sure all court orders go his way.’”

She continued to preview the impending Supreme Court showdown by imagining an alternate situation where the justices use the opportunity “to make clear to him that his powers as president actually don't allow him to defy the court.”

“Do they tell him that if he does try to defy the courts, he is effectively declaring war on the United States of America? We'll see,” she added.

Maddow told viewers to keep their “eyes wide open on that and take it with all the seriousness it deserves.”

Watch the clip below or at this link: