“ASSAULT ON DEMOCRACY”
Federal judges are nominated by the president for life and can only be removed by being impeached by the House of Representatives for “high crimes or misdemeanours” and convicted by the Senate.
Impeachment of federal judges is exceedingly rare and the last time a judge was removed by Congress was in 2010.
Trump, in an interview aired on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle” on Wednesday, said the chief justice “didn’t mention my name in the statement”.
“But many people have called for (Boasberg’s) impeachment,” he said. “He actually said we shouldn’t be able to take criminals, killers, murderers, horrible, the worst people, gang members, gang leaders … out of our country.
“Well, that’s a presidential job,” Trump said. “That’s not for a local judge to be making that determination.”
Judges have dealt Trump a number of setbacks in recent weeks as his administration pursues its wholesale overhaul of the federal government.
Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship has been blocked by the courts and a judge on Tuesday ordered an immediate halt to the shutdown of the main United States aid agency by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
On the same day, another judge suspended the Pentagon’s ban on transgender people serving in the military.
The South African-born billionaire Musk railed against what he called a “judicial coup” in posts on his social network X.
“We need 60 senators to impeach the judges and restore rule of the people,” Musk said, misstating the process and the actual number of senators required – 67.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller also lashed out at the judiciary, accusing it of waging an “assault on democracy”.
“District court judges have assumed the mantle of Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, Secretary of Homeland Security and Commander-in-Chief,” Miller said on X.
Trump, the first convicted felon to serve in the White House, has a history of attacking the judges who presided over his civil and criminal cases.
But Trump’s administration now appears bent on a showdown with the judiciary as he asserts extraordinary levels of executive power.
