WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump's lawyers found themselves undercut by their client when the chief executive tweeted that he wanted a "travel ban" and "not the watered down, politically correct version they submitted" to the Supreme Court.
Last week, the Justice Department filed a lengthy appeal at the high court that sought to minimize the impact of Trump's travel order. They said it called for a limited and "temporary pause" for certain travelers from six countries, not a travel ban.
But in his tweets on Monday, Trump said he did not agree with his Justice Department or with how they characterized what he planned to do.
"People, the lawyers, and the courts can call it whatever they want, but I am calling it what need and it is, a TRAVEL BAN," Trump proclaimed.
"The Justice Department should have stayed with the original Travel Ban," not the scaled-down version that is now before the high court, he added.
The lawyers on the other side, fighting the Trump team in court, were quick to say they were pleased by his comments.
"It's kinda odd to have the defendant in Hawaii v. Trump acting as our co-counsel," Neal Katyal, the attorney for a group of West Coast plaintiffs, said in a tweet of his own. "We don't need the help but will take it."
Omar Jadwat, the attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said Trump had "undercut the picture the government has been trying to paint."
In their court arguments, the president's lawyers have argued that Trump's campaign pledge to enact a "Muslim ban" does not reflect what he is seeking now.
Jadwat said Trump's tweets reveal his actual goal. "It shows that the ban is a ban, and that's the goal. It is not about developing new vetting procedures," he said.
Next week, the ACLU lawyers will file a formal response in the Supreme Court, and Jadwat said he had not yet decided on how to handle the latest tweets. "They certainly seem relevant," he said.
The high court is expected to decide in a few weeks whether to hear the case, perhaps in the fall, and also whether to allow Trump's order to take effect.
