From ‘radical lunatic’, to ‘unhinged’ and ‘unfair’, Trump never loses his tongue when expressing disapproval of US judges.
President Donald Trump of the United States has doubled down on the attack of a federal judge, labelling him “radical left” for blocking the deportation of Venezuelan migrants, as his administration steps up the rhetoric against the courts.
Trump on Tuesday demanded the impeachment of Judge James Boasberg, blaming him for endangering the US. “We don’t want vicious, violent, and demented criminals, many of them deranged murderers, in our country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday.
Boasberg, a judge in the federal district court in Washington, DC, has been targeted since he ordered deportation flights to be halted on Saturday.
The Trump administration has been criticized for defying Boasberg’s directives by sending several planes filled with Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador prisons that are infamous for human rights violations. Trump has invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a little-known law intended to be used against citizens of an enemy country during war.
Several of Trump’s executive orders have been halted by the courts with minimal opposition from the Republican-dominated Congress, bringing the ire of the officials. Attorney General Pam Bondi referred to the judge as “meddling in our government” while White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt thinks judges are “judicial activists.”
The US president himself labelled Boasberg as a “radical left lunatic” “appointed by [ex-president] Barack Hussein Obama”.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has condemned demands to impeach Judge Boasberg, but that has not deterred Trump from insulting the judge. The US president lambasted Roberts too, implying the Supreme Court itself was politicized.
The most recent rhetoric is one of a long line of assaults Trump has made on judges and courts who oppose his policies or hold him accountable when he’s defended in lawsuits against him.
Why have officials and Trump himself conflicted with the judiciary? There’s a disturbing history of Trump going after judges and courts previously. Let’s have a look.
