What I find weird here is that the president is transparently stating that he is doing this to help is own political interests. I would have hoped that any presidential action exercising executive power (of any kind) with the stated intent to influence his own electoral chances in an imminent election would be considered an illegal act, based on intent alone.

It is not dissimilar to the original immigration bans where they were struck down initially because Trump openly expressed the intent that they were designed to achieve an outcome based on race, even though in technical implementation an argument could be made that they were not.