Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts to transform federal spending and the federal workforce is crashing up against judges who’ve temporarily blocked several of their policies.

Judges have frozen Trump’s “spending freeze” orders, the Musk team’s effort to access government payment systems, Musk’s “fork in the road” offer for federal employees to resign, and an attempt to put most of USAID’s staff on administrative leave.

Which has raised the question: Will the administration comply with these judges’ orders, or try to defy them?

Vice President JD Vance seemed to hint at the possibility of open defiance in an X post on Sunday.

“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal,” Vance wrote. “If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”

But traditionally, in the American system, what counts as the “executive’s legitimate power” has been determined by the judiciary. Blatantly defying a court order would be a monumental step, one that even many conservatives would find alarming.

Yet there are elements in right-wing circles — Vance included — who have previously advocated doing just that. And if they win out, we’ll be embroiled in a very serious constitutional crisis.

Despite Vance’s rhetoric, the Trump administration has not yet openly rejected any judicial order so far. In court filings, they’ve claimed to be complying with all of them.

But there are questions about whether they actually are. One judge

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