Tom Cotton Torches Judges Who Dared Rule Against Trump
Republican lawmakers are going after the judicial branch, claiming that the legal appointees are attempting to usurp Donald Trump’s power for merely ruling against the president’s agenda.
“These far-left Resistance™ district court judges are under the impression they were elected president,” Senator Tom Cotton posted on X Monday. “The idea of ordering the President to turn around a plane filled with violent criminal illegal aliens is outrageous.”
Fox News also pitched in on the effort to condemn the judge, broadcasting a photo of James Boasberg, the chief judge of the Washington, D.C., District Court, to its millions of viewers.
The Trump administration ignored a judge’s order to turn around two planes carrying hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members on Saturday. In a verbal order, Boasberg demanded that the government cancel the flights immediately.
“You shall inform your clients of this immediately. Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States,” Boasberg said during a hearing. “However that’s accomplished, turning around the plane, or not embarking anyone on the plane.… This is something that you need to make sure is complied with immediately.”
Regardless, the planes did not turn around.
Trump had invoked a Japanese internment-era wartime policy—the Alien Enemies Act—early Saturday to deport noncitizens he believed to be a part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Five of the men sued the Trump administration in response, attempting to prevent their “imminent removal.”
But hours later, when the emergency court hearing had taken a brief pause, the planes were skybound. Once Boasberg’s directive was received, Trump officials made the calculated decision to keep the planes en route to Honduras, alleging “operational” and “national security” reasons for their continued flight while claiming that the judge’s order was out of bounds since the planes had supposedly passed over international waters by the time the verbal order was given.
The following day, Trump had his explanation for the blatant infraction, claiming that the nation’s immigration constituted an “invasion” while describing the current era as a “time of war.”
“These are criminals, many, many criminals,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “Murderers, drug dealers at the highest level, drug lords. People from mental institutions.”