I gotta say l think YOU are right, this was an opportunity to finally, finally put one of these activist Judges in his place so now it looks like Trump is stuck playing a losing game.
I think that Trump will eventually win the war, but he litened to his pussy advisors on this one battle, which will cost him, and us.
Obviously, the circuit court judge's ruling must be overruled, as Trump's EO is firmly grounded in statute law and the Constitution, but the President has lost face in the court of public opinion, by allowing his ironclad authority in this matter to be usurped and nullified by a single low level functionary of the federal judiciary.
It's a terrible strategic mistake on his part, which I hope to never see him repeat.
So how will Trump pull out of this and correct course? He has a long period of judicial activism to undo. Not impossible, but certainly not easy.