Donald Trump is no stranger to inflammatory rhetoric, but even by the former president’s standards, he’s been on quite a rhetorical tear lately. The Republican has suggested that the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff deserves to be executed. He’s threatened my employer. He’s called for police officers to shoot shoplifters as a way of discouraging crime.
He’s also continued to lash out wildly at New York Attorney General Letitia James, condemning the Democrat as a “racist“ — a label he generally reserves for Black prosecutors he doesn’t like.
But as the civil trial against Trump and his New York-based business empire moves forward, the former president appeared at the courthouse and shared some related thoughts about the judge overseeing the proceedings, Arthur Engoron. NBC News reported:
During the lunch break, Trump spoke in front of cameras inside the courthouse arguing that Engoron is a “rogue judge.” … The former president also called Engoron a “Trump-hater,” and at one point spoke about how people are “being murdered right outside in the street” and that nothing happens to those criminals.
“This is a judge that should be disbarred,” the former president added. “This is a judge that should be out of office. This is a judge that some people say could be charged criminally for what he’s doing. He’s interfering with an election, and it’s a disgrace.”
On his social media platform, the Republican also wrote that Engoron “should resign from the ‘Bench’ and be sanctioned by the Courts for his abuse of power.”
At least so far, Trump and his allies haven’t pointed to any examples of the judge actually doing anything improper — except issue a ruling the former president didn’t like. It was last week when Engoron, in response to allegations documented by the state attorney general’s office, concluded that the Trump Organization had, in fact, defrauded lenders and fraudulently inflated the value of its assets.
In response, the former president has added the New York jurist to his list of judicial rhetorical targets. It’s a list that also includes U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in 2016. And U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan. And U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan. And immigration judges in general.
These are the kind of steps a suspected criminal might take if he wanted to try to undermine public confidence in the judicial system. But it’s worth noting that he’s not alone. Sen. Lindsey Graham appeared on Fox News in August and parroted Trump’s line against Chutkan, claiming that she “hates Trump” and shouldn’t oversee one of the former president’s criminal cases. To bolster his point, the South Carolina Republican pointed to literally no evidence whatsoever. Last night, Graham — the former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee — kept the offensive going, again on Fox News, condemning Engoron as “a joke,” and assuring viewers, “We’re not gonna let New York get away with this.” The senator did not say why he believes the judge is a joke, how he intends to stop New York, or who exactly “we” are.
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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