The Trump administration on Sunday evening doubled down on its assertion that a federal judge cannot force it to bring back to the United States a Maryland man who was unlawfully deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador last month.

In a brief legal filing, the Justice Department reiterated its view that courts lack the ability to dictate steps that the White House should take in seeking to return the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, to United States soil, because the president alone has broad powers to handle foreign policy.

“The federal courts have no authority to direct the executive branch to conduct foreign relations in a particular way, or engage with a foreign sovereign in a given manner,” lawyers for the Trump administration wrote. “That is the ‘exclusive power of the president as the sole organ of the federal government in the field of international relations.’”

The position taken by Trump officials was not the first time they had tried to defy efforts compelling them to seek Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador. Still, their continued recalcitrance meant that Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old father of three, would for now remain at the CECOT prison in El Salvador, where he was sent with scores of other migrants March 15.

The administration’s stubbornness was also likely to heighten tensions between the White House and the judge overseeing the case, Paula Xinis. Xinis has scheduled a hearing to discuss next steps in the matter Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Maryland.

The conflict has persisted even though the Supreme Court last week unanimously ordered the administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from Salvadoran custody.

Administration officials have in fact already admitted that they made an “administrative error” when they put Abrego Garcia on the plane to El Salvador in the first place.

The dispute — just one of the legal battles involving Trump’s deportation plans — threatened to spill over into an official visit from President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, who is set to meet with President Donald Trump on Monday.

President’s doctor says he’s ‘fully fit’

Donald Trump’s doctor says the oldest man elected president is “fully fit” to serve as commander in chief as the White House released results Sunday of Trump’s recent physical exam. The 78-year-old Trump is 20 pounds lighter since his checkup as president in 2020 showed him bordering on obesity.

His physician, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, cited an “active lifestyle” that ”continues to contribute significantly” to the Republican president’s well-being. Trump turns 79 on June 14.

In a three-page summary of the comprehensive exam from Friday, the doctor said Trump is “fully fit to execute the duties of Commander-in-Chief and Head of State.” Trump weighed 224 at the checkup, down from 244 at that physical more than four years ago.

His BMI, or body mass index, which is a measure of one’s weight relative to height, is down to 28.0, which drops Trump to the category of overweight. The president’s BMI came in at 30.5 in 2020, which pushed him just over the edge into the category of obesity.

The summary noted that Trump previously had cataract surgery on both eyes, but gave no date or dates. A common procedure among aging people, the surgery typically involves removing a cloudy eye lens and replacing it with an artificial lens to help clear up vision.

Trump takes in Florida fight night

President Donald Trump said the standing ovation and cheers he drew when he took his seat at a UFC event in his home state of Florida were signs “we’re doing a good job.”

Trump shook hands with some supporters as he walked to his cageside seat Saturday night at Miami’s Kaseya Center while others waved his trademark red campaign cap. The Republican president, who stayed for several hours before flying back to his home in Palm Beach, said it was a “great honor” to receive that recognition from the crowd.

“It says we’re doing a good job. If we weren’t doing a good job, we’d get the opposite,” he told reporters accompanying him aboard Air Force One.

In the nearly three months since he has been back in office, Trump has launched a broad effort led by billionaire Elon Musk to shrink government by firing thousands of workers and cutting spending, tried unsuccessfully thus far to end Russia’s war against Ukraine and impose tariffs against many countries, including close allies of the United States.

Democrats, and even some Trump supporters, have criticized his early actions.

But at UFC, it was a night focused on the fighters in the cage.

“Every one of them came up at the end, and they were great,” Trump said. “I mean, they’re all warriors, modern day warriors.”

— From news services