President Donald Trump demanded that Chief Justice John Roberts and the U.S. Supreme Court rein in federal judges who have issued injunctions around the country that have impeded an array of his policies.
“It is our goal to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, and such a high aspiration can never be done if Radical and Highly Partisan Judges are allowed to stand in the way of JUSTICE. STOP NATIONWIDE INJUNCTIONS NOW, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. If Justice Roberts and the United States Supreme Court do not fix this toxic and unprecedented situation IMMEDIATELY, our Country is in very serious trouble!” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Thursday.
The post resumes a clash between the leaders of two of America’s three branches of government amid escalating attacks by Republicans on federal judges who have determined Trump’s sweeping actions in the first two months of his term were unconstitutional.
Earlier this week, Trump called for the impeachment of Chief U.S. District James Boasberg, a lifetime appointee who’d ruled against one of his deportation policies in a D.C. federal court. Republican members of Congress responded by filing articles of impeachment against Boasberg, though it is unclear that House leaders will allow them to move forward.
Roberts’ response hours later suggested the president was defying a bedrock principle of American government by proposing impeachment as an acceptable response to a judicial decision Trump doesn’t like.
Trump’s post appears to highlight his concern that federal judges in jurisdictions across the U.S. have the power to issue nationwide injunctions, halting the federal government from acting even beyond the boundaries of their court’s regional jurisdiction.
What the Trump administration means for you: Sign up for USA TODAY’s On Politics newsletter.
Boasberg is among multiple judges who have ruled that the Trump administration likely violated the Constitution or federal laws in recent executive actions. The administration has been ordered to cease federal worker layoffs, certain deportation flights, a ban on transgender troops serving in the military and a range of other actions.
In a separate post days later, Trump again attacked Boasberg, saying “Judge James Boasberg is doing everything in his power to usurp the Power of the Presidency.”
Trump and his supporters haven’t always viewed Roberts as an adversary. Critics of the justice have accused him of helping provide legal cover for Trump, particularly in the 2024 Supreme Court ruling he authored that shielded Trump – and potentially other past and future presidents – from criminal prosecution for various official acts while in office. But the Roberts court has also repeatedly stood up to the Trump administration’s actions.
Contributing: Aysha Bagchi, Joey Garrison and Maureen Groppe.
