As a rule, Donald Trump’s perspective on criticizing judges depends entirely on whether he’s faring well or poorly in the courts. After his 2020 defeat, for example, the Republican, more than any modern American political leader, went after sitting judges with a vengeance — at times even targeting members of their families.
But when he had better luck in some courts, his position changed. And in the run-up to Election Day 2024, Trump invested a fair amount of time condemning those who criticize judges — as if his own rhetorical record didn’t exist. Such criticisms, the Republican said in August, are “probably illegal.” Two weeks later, he went a little further, adding that judicial criticisms should be “illegal.”
In case that wasn’t quite enough, Trump — who, again, spent years publicly chastising judges — went so far as to declare, “These people should be put in jail the way they talk about our judges.”
At face value, this seems fairly predictable: The president admonishes judges when he’s struggling, and he condemns those who criticize judges when he’s succeeding. What’s weird, however, is when Team Trump takes both positions simultaneously.
On Friday, for example, Trump delivered unhinged remarks at the Justice Department, where he defended U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump-appointed conservative who helped dismiss his classified documents case. “It’s totally illegal what they do,” the president told the law enforcement officials in the audience. “I just hope you can all watch for it, but it’s totally illegal.”
That was, of course, bonkers. In the United States, it’s still legal to criticize judges, especially when they badly mishandle important cases.
But while the president suggests it’s “totally illegal” to criticize a judge he likes, those around him are targeting judges who dare to rule in ways the White House doesn’t like. The Associated Press reported:
As the courts deliver a series of setbacks to his dramatic attempt to change the federal government without congressional approval, President Donald Trump’s supporters are echoing some of the rhetoric and actions that elsewhere have preceded attacks on the judiciary.
The Wall Street Journal had a related report over the weekend, too:
Having taken the White House and captured the Congress, President Trump’s movement is unleashing its fury on the one branch of government it doesn’t fully control: the judiciary.
As more judges have blocked or slowed some of Trump’s initiatives, the president’s surrogates have been increasingly strident in their responses, casting adverse rulings as not only incorrect but also illegitimate.
This isn’t just a simple matter of hypocrisy; it has quickly devolved into incoherence. As the president condemns public criticisms of judges, prominent members of his White House team — from Elon Musk to Karoline Leavitt to Stephen Miller — have ramped up their public criticisms of judges, often in highly provocative ways. In the meantime, some congressional Republicans are talking about impeaching judges, and Fox News had a segment over the weekend in which the network literally showed photographs of judges who had ruled against the administration in recent weeks. “It’s totally illegal what they do”? Perhaps the White House could elaborate on who was included in “they”?
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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