As recently as Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about the many prominent Republicans, including Elon Musk, who’ve repeatedly talked about impeaching federal judges who’ve dared to issue rulings the party doesn’t like. Donald Trump’s chief spokesperson didn’t question the premise, but she did emphasize that the president had not made any such declarations.
“I have not heard the president talk about impeaching judges,” Leavitt replied. “I know you mentioned Mr. Musk’s tweet, but I have not heard the President of the United States ask that [judges be impeached].”
Less than one day later, Trump crossed a line he’d never crossed before: On heels of a Justice Department speech in which he suggested criticizing judges should be seen as “totally illegal,” the president called U.S. District Judge James Boasberg a “Radical Left Lunatic,” a “troublemaker” and an “agitator.” Trump concluded, “This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!”
The Republican didn’t offer any evidence against the jurist. Rather, he seemed to suggest that a judge ruling in a way the White House doesn’t like constitutes a high crime.
As the day progressed, Trump sat down with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham and kept the offensive going. “[W]e have bad judges. We have very bad judges,” the president said. “These are judges that shouldn’t be allowed. I think at a certain point you have to start looking at — what do you do when you have a rogue judge?”
To the extent that reality still has meaning, none of the targeted judges have done anything to suggest they’ve gone “rogue.” But even if Trump has come to the opposite conclusion, the answer to his question is simple: As Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts reminded Trump, he can simply appeal rulings he believes were wrong.
But no matter how serious the White House is about judicial impeachments, it’s not up to Trump or his team to execute such a plan: Presidents have literally no formal or procedural role in the process. Rather, that power rests with Congress — where a group of far-right Republicans apparently interpreted Trump’s appeal as a directive. Axios reported:
Just hours after President Trump called for the impeachment of a federal judge who ruled against his deportation of hundreds of Venezuelans over the weekend, House Republicans introduced a measure to do just that. … Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) said Tuesday he is introducing articles of impeachment against Boasberg, arguing he “overstepped his authority, compromised the impartiality of the judiciary, and created a constitutional crisis.”
The Texas Republican’s impeachment resolution was unveiled with five co-sponsors: Republican Reps. Eli Crane of Arizona, Buddy Carter of Georgia, Mike Collins of Georgia, Barry Moore of Alabama and Andrew Clyde of Georgia.
Boasberg is now the fourth sitting federal judge to face an impeachment resolution filed by far-right GOP House members, joining U.S. District Court Judge Paul Engelmayer, U.S. District Court Judge John Bates and U.S. District Court Judge Amir Ali. (Technically, there are five such resolutions, because Engelmayer is facing two parallel impeachment measures simultaneously.)
What’s more, the list is likely to grow: Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee recently hosted an online “impeachathon” event, displaying a poster of 11 judges he and his far-right colleagues are focused on. Ogles appeared alongside a caption that read “Woke Judge Hunter.” A clip of the event was promoted soon after by Musk. To be sure, there are several examples in American history of Congress impeaching jurists, but in each of those instances, the judges were credibly accused of serious crimes. In 2025, however, Republican lawmakers have launched impeachment efforts targeting sitting members of the federal judiciary for ruling in ways that Trump didn’t like. And there is no precedent for that. House GOP leaders, of course, already have their hands full, and they don’t seem overly eager to launch impeachment crusades against judges who’ve done nothing wrong, and who’d never be removed by two-thirds of the Senate. What’s unclear, however, is just how much effort the president intends to invest in this, and what Republican leaders on Capitol Hill will do if Trump decides this is a real priority. Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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