President Donald Trump doubled down on his criticism of federal judges on Wednesday after he was rebuked by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts for his remarks about impeaching judges who disagree with him.
Trump found himself in the crosshairs of Roberts this week after the president went after a federal judge who ordered the administration to turn around flights that were carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members.
In a rare public statement, Robert defended U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg and criticized Trump.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
In a post on social media on Wednesday, Trump appeared to respond to the statement from Roberts, doubling down on his past remarks.
“If a President doesn’t have the right to throw murderers, and other criminals, out of our Country because a Radical Left Lunatic Judge wants to assume the role of President, then our Country is in very big trouble, and destined to fail!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
The Trump administration had defied the order from Boasberg, arguing that the flights were already out of U.S. territory at the time so Boasberg didn’t have the authority to order their return.
In an interview on Tuesday, Trump told Fox News that Boasberg’s decision was “terrible” and “not for a local judge to be making that determination.”
When Trump was asked in the interview about Robert’s statement, Trump said the chief justice was not named in his post.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham also got direct with Trump, asking him if he would defy a court order.
“Well I think that, number one, nobody’s been through more courts than I have. I think nobody knows the courts better than I have … and what they’ve done to me — I’ve had the worst judges. I’ve had crooked judges,” Trump said.
“But going forward would you defy a court order? We all know that,” Ingraham interjected.
“I never did defy a court order,” Trump said.
“And you wouldn’t in the future?” Ingraham asked.
“No, you can’t do that,” Trump said. “However, we have bad judges. We have very bad judges. These are judges that shouldn’t be allowed. I think at a certain point, you have to look at what do you do when you have a rogue judge.”