The appeals court decision blocking President Donald Trump's executive order travel ban is "part of a broader narrative or pattern where Trump is just losing allies," conservative journalist Bill Kristol said Thursday.
"The big story is Donald Trump doesn't have the support of a lot of Republicans in Congress," Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, told Erin Burnett on CNN. "He didn't have it before or tonight."
Kristol referenced several setbacks for Trump on Thursday, including Republican House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz saying that presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway would be referred for an ethics investigation after promoting Ivanka Trump's products in an interview from the White House.
"You have the Republican chairman of the committee, three weeks into a Republican administration, saying: 'I'm worried about ethics violations in the White House,'" Kristol said.
The editor also noted that Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch has also slammed Trump's remarks on U.S. District Court Judge James Robart, whose initial action led to the appellate hearing, as "disheartening" and "demoralizing."
Trump had slammed Robart as a "so-called judge."
"He's lost his own appointee, Judge Gorsuch," Kristol said.
Overall, he said that the unanimous ruling by the three-judge panel is "a very broad decision.
"Federal judges are human," Kristol added. "I have to think some of it was wanting to send a message to Donald Trump.
"He personally attacked their colleague, a district judge over the weekend, in an unusual way.
"His chances in the federal courts are hurt by the attitude he's taking by attacking federal judges," he told Burnett. "They're human and want to be treated with respect.
"The executive branch is entitled to appeal, but usually they do so in a respectful tone."
Kristol later took to Twitter:
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