President Trump said that Chief Justice John Roberts’ statement on Tuesday didn’t mention him by name while doubling down on his call to impeach a federal judge who ruled against his administration in a high-profile deportation case.
In an interview on Tuesday with Fox News’s Laura
Ingraham, Trump was asked what his reaction was to Roberts stepping in to make a statement after Trump called for impeaching U.S. District Judge James Boasberg.
“He didn’t mention my name in the statement. I just saw it quickly. He didn’t mention my name. But many people have called for his impeachment. The impeachment of this judge. I don’t know who the judge is. He is radical left. He is Obama-appointed,” Trump said, according to an early clip shared on the social platform X.
Boasberg, an appointee of former President Obama, blocked Trump from invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to swiftly deport Venezuelan migrants the administration has labeled as gang members.
On Tuesday, Trump said that the decision to remove people from the U.S. should be left to the president.
“He actually said we shouldn’t be able to take criminals, killers, murderers, horrible, the worst people, gang members, gang leaders — that we shouldn’t be allowed to take them out of our country,” Trump told Fox News. “Well, that is a presidential job. Not for a local judge to be making that determination.”
Roberts didn’t name the president in his pushback, but he said calling for impeachment isn’t an appropriate response to a judicial disagreement.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” the chief justice said.
Trump called Boasberg on Truth Social a “radical left lunatic” and a “troublemaker and agitator” before saying he should be removed from office.
“This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!! WE DON’T WANT VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINALS, MANY OF THEM DERANGED MURDERERS, IN OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” the president wrote. ...read more read less