Here is the Associated Press story on Trump’s call for the impeachment of a U.S. District Judge:
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that a federal judge who tried to stop his deportation plans should be impeached, escalating his conflict with a judiciary that’s been one of the few restraints on his administration’s aggressive plans.
Trump has routinely criticized judges, especially as they limit his efforts to expand presidential power and impose his sweeping agenda on the federal government. But his call for impeachment — a rare step that is usually taken only in cases of grave ethical or criminal misconduct — represents an intensifying clash between the judicial and executive branches.
The Republican president described U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg in Washington, as an unelected “troublemaker and agitator” in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform. Boasberg recently issued an order blocking deportation flights under wartime authorities from an 18th century law that Trump invoked to carry out his plans.
“HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING! I WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY HAVE BEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR THIS HISTORIC VICTORY,” Trump wrote on Tuesday. “I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do. This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!”
The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 has been used only three times before in U.S. history, all during congressionally declared wars. Trump issued a proclamation that the law was newly in effect due to what he claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. His administration is paying El Salvador to imprison alleged members of the gang.
Read the rest here.
I might have more to say about this story at another time, but today I was struck by the democratic (small “d’”) flavor of Trump’s Truth Social post. He believes that by calling for the impeachment of Boasberg, he is “just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do.” Trump, in other words, claims he is merely a conduit of the voters who elected him in November 2024.
Two quick thoughts:
First, I am not sure that the people elected Trump so that he could impeach federal justices.
Second, when I heard the words “just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do” I was reminded of my United States history survey course lecture on Andrew Jackson.
Jackson, a president that is apparently one of Trump’s favorites, also thought he was doing what the voters wanted him to do when he uprooted 60,000 native Americans from their tribal lands and sent them, with a military escort, to “Indian Territory” (present-day Oklahoma) as part of the “Trail of Tears.” Jackson believed he had a mandate from the people. In this particular case, the people were white southerners who wanted to settle on the Indian’s land. The “people” wanted these Indians gone. Jackson delivered. It was one of the most democratic acts of his presidency. The lesson? Democracy can cut in a variety of ways.
