Mr. Trump contracepts promise to Little Sisters of the Poor.

f Mr. Trump want­ed—as he said he did, pinky swear on a stack of Play­boy—he could exempt the Lit­tle Sis­ters of the Poor from the con­tra­cep­tion man­date with an exec­u­tive order. He has issued twen­ty-five of them, so he knows what they are. The man­date is not part of the lan­guage of the ACA, so the fact that Con­gress did not over­turn it does not in any way com­pel Mr. Trump to enforce it and fight on its behalf in Court.

And yet, accord­ing to the Wash­ing­ton Post, the Trump Admin­is­tra­tion has decid­ed to con­tin­ue the gov­ern­men­t’s legal bat­tle against the Lit­tle Sis­ters of the Poor:

The depart­ment has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Cir­cuit for an addi­tion­al 60 days to nego­ti­ate with East Texas Bap­tist Uni­ver­si­ty and sev­er­al oth­er reli­gious groups object­ing to a require­ment to which they are moral­ly opposed.

Now, why is the Trump Admin­is­tra­tion still attempt­ing to “nego­ti­ate” if it is on the side of the Sis­ters, Texas Bap­tist, and the rest? Is there a sense in this? If Mr. Trump thinks that Pres­i­dent Oba­ma had vio­lat­ed reli­gious liberty—remember, he said so—then how now?

The Post tries to cast this in the best light pos­si­ble. Per­haps, it says, the Jus­tice Depart­ment is try­ing to “buy time.” Per­ad­ven­ture Mr. Trump is just plot­ting his next strong blow against Oba­macare.

But Mr. Trump has already proven he can issue exec­u­tive orders with swift dev­as­ta­tion. What’s one more? Call in Tom Price; call in Jeff Ses­sions. Tell them we’re not going to defend the man­date. I sup­port reli­gious free­dom. Why the need to buy time?

Yea, even the Post casts doubts upon its own spec­u­la­tion: “But the lack of clar­i­ty from the Trump admin­is­tra­tion is dis­may­ing to sev­er­al reli­gious orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the Lit­tle Sis­ters of the Poor, a group of nuns that fought the man­date for sev­er­al years but expect­ed an imme­di­ate reprieve under the Repub­li­can pres­i­dent. They believed that either the Jus­tice Depart­ment would halt its appeal in the case or the admin­is­tra­tion would seek a rule change from the Depart­ment of Health and Human Ser­vices.

Trump pledged dur­ing the cam­paign that as pres­i­dent he’d side with the mandate’s oppo­nents, indi­cat­ing to Catholic lead­ers that he would ensure the require­ment was lift­ed.

I know it runs counter to every impulse of the Trump apol­o­gist, but let us not delude our­selves here: Mr. Trump does­n’t need to seek per­mis­sion for a rule change from HHS. He can order the rule change. But he has­n’t done so. Instead he con­tin­ues to play tid­dly­winks with his small hands. Why?

Oh, yeah, every­one expect­ed a rule change. Mr. Trump is on the side of the nuns. He is on the side of reli­gious free­dom. Pinky swear. Pro-life Catholics every­where said we must vote for Mr. Trump because he will end the man­date and he will crush abor­tion like the ser­pen­t’s head. Pinky swear. We’ll get no reli­gious free­dom under Mrs. Clin­ton; we must vote Trump; he’s on our side; trust me; you’ll see.

Well? I told you so.