They do get to tell their agents how to enforce illegal "laws," and a majority of Congress will accept that.

Of related interest: recent SCOTUS mumblings about counter-agency and counter-Executive doctrines, including the Unitary Executive Theory's necessary implication of a Unitary Legislative counterpart. See https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/01/did-justice-kagan-debilit....

I wouldn't take legal advice from the executive branch.

But by repeating these things over and over, they create a chilling effect (after all they might shoot you in broad daylight) and also normalize the idea so they can then arrest people over it. Kristi Noem is using the word “doxxing” to describe recording and posting videos. And then describes doxxing as “violence”. Right wing Twitter is eating up this characterization and is asking the administration to jail people for recording. They’re priming the public to support such blatant violations of the first amendment.