Vice President JD Vance sent another warning to “rogue” federal judges who he feels are abusing their authority to improperly impede President Donald Trump as head of the Executive Branch.
So far, the courts have blocked Trump’s efforts to end birthright citizenship, freeze federal grants, and overhaul federal agencies like USAID and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Over the weekend, the administration faced another setback when a federal judge temporarily restricted Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing the Treasury Department’s extensive federal payment system, which holds sensitive information about millions of Americans, ABC News reported.
Musk accused the judge of corruption and called for his immediate impeachment.
Vance has also spoken out against several of the judges who he believes are improperly encroaching on Executive Branch authority.
“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” Vance said over the weekend, per ABC.
On Sunday, Trump was asked about Vance’s comments and his court setbacks.
“When a president can’t look for fraud and waste and abuse, we don’t have a country anymore,” Trump told reporters. “So, we’re very disappointed, but with the judges that would make such a ruling. But we have a long way to go.”
“No judge should, frankly, be allowed to make that kind of a decision,” the president added. “It’s a disgrace.”
Republicans are largely united in their support of the president. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton criticized the judge who blocked DOGE’s access to Treasury data, calling him an “outlaw.” Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, mostly defended Musk’s actions on CNN Sunday, asserting that he was “carrying out the will” of the president who appointed him.
To that end, House Republicans are planning to introduce articles of impeachment against at least two federal judges who have blocked Trump’s efforts, Axios reported.
The measures are part of an escalating public clash between Republicans and the federal judiciary as Trump pushes back against obstacles to his “government efficiency” agenda. Trump intensified the situation this week during an Oval Office news briefing with DOGE head Musk, stating, “Maybe we have to look at the judges because I think that’s a very serious violation.”
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) is working on articles of impeachment against U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell Jr., the chief judge of the District of Rhode Island and an Obama appointee, who ordered the administration to lift its federal spending freeze, Clyde’s office confirmed to Axios.
In a post on X this week, Clyde called McConnell a “partisan activist weaponizing our judicial system to stop President Trump’s funding freeze on woke and wasteful government spending.”
Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) has said he plans to introduce articles of impeachment against U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York, another Obama appointee, who blocked DOGE from accessing Treasury records, on similar grounds.
Clyde and Crane would need majorities in the House to impeach the two judges and two-thirds majorities in the Senate to convict them.
With only 53 Senate Republicans, securing the necessary votes would be a challenge, Axios noted.
Judicial impeachments are rare and typically occur for issues such as corruption, perjury, or serious misconduct. The last successful impeachment of a federal court judge was in 2010, related to false financial disclosures, the outlet noted further.
Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional law expert at the University of North Carolina, told ABC News Trump’s rhetoric is largely “bravado” as “judges are entitled to review the constitutionality of presidential actions.”
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