President Donald Trump has unleashed an escalating series of threats against opponents of his agenda, a move the president’s supporters claim is helping him maintain control.
Earlier this week, Trump joined a growing chorus of Republicans calling for the impeachment of federal judges who pushed back on his executive actions, specifically targeting U.S. District Judge James Boasberg for ordering the administration to halt any deportations linked to Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act earlier this month. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers have begun introducing articles of impeachment against a number of federal judges who have ruled against Trump.
This comes after the president vowed to primary Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) after he was the sole Republican House member to vote against a continuing resolution aimed at averting a government shutdown, and maintained consistent attacks against federal workers for much of his first two months in office while Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency prepare federal departments and agencies to initiate widespread workforce cuts.
Multiple Republican officials suggested to the Washington Examiner that, while personal attacks have long been a favored political tool of the president, Trump is taking a more “tailored” approach compared to the stream-of-consciousness attacks he frequently levied during his first term in office.
“Timing is key here,” one senior Republican operative with close contacts to the White House said. “Whether it’s deportations or getting a spending bill across the goal line, President Trump knows that the longer he waits, the more likely Democrats will gum up implementation of his policies. So he’s striking while the iron is hot, trying to maintain that momentum, because he’s got an incredible amount of political capital coming out of the election and no time to waste.”
“We’re seeing the president be a little more tailored in his critiques here. No more 3:00 am tweets,” a second Republican strategist added. “He’s simply responding when he feels slighted or obstructed by these career bureaucrats and judges. They call it the bully pulpit for a reason.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt gave a similar response earlier this week when asked about Boasberg in particular.
“Judges in this country are acting erroneously. We have judges who are acting as partisan activists from the bench. They are trying to dictate policy from the president of the United States. They are trying to clearly slow walk this administration’s agenda, and it’s unacceptable,” she told reporters during Tuesday’s briefing before noting that the White House will comply with judicial rulings. “It’s incredibly apparent that there is a concerted effort by the far Left to judge shop, to pick judges who are clearly acting as partisan activists from the bench in an attempt to derail this president’s agenda. We will not allow that to happen, and not only are they usurping the will of the president and the chief executive of our country, but they are undermining the will of the American public.”
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Jeffrey McCall, professor of political communication at DePauw University, told the Washington Examiner: “All presidents use the bully pulpit, of course, so Trump is not unusual in this regard. His approach, however, is rhetorically more blunt and undiplomatic compared to most of his predecessors. But this is certainly a strategic decision. Trump is working with a sense of urgency and with the wind at his back, in a sense. The Americans who voted him into office voted for this aggressive style, and most are probably OK with rhetorical broadsides directed at what they perceive to be rogue judges or disruptive political foes.”
Peter Loge, a professor at George Washington University and director of the school’s Project on Ethics in Political Communication, however, told the Washington Examiner that there’s nothing normal about Trump’s escalating rhetoric.
“This is not typical. It is fundamentally anti-democratic behavior. We have three co-equal branches of government. They don’t always get along. They don’t always agree with each other. That’s the point of having checks and balances,” he said. “President Trump threatening judges, threatening to impeach judges, attacking the judiciary is understandable, but it’s anti-democratic, and it’s un-presidential.”
Andrew Bates, an adviser with the bipartisan interest group Unlikely Allies and senior deputy press secretary for former President Joe Biden, similarly accused Trump of seeking to undermine the judicial and legislative branches.
“Radical, corrupt attacks on judges are putting our Constitution and the freedom of every single American in danger from government overreach. For the first time in history, our president and members of his party in Congress are colluding to impeach any federal judge who stops the most powerful person in the world from breaking the law,” he said. “The president has also called for making dissent illegal, which would trample the 1st Amendment and threaten the fundamental right of any American to disagree with his agenda.”
Bates additionally criticized Musk for allegedly putting his thumb on the scale in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election and North Carolina Republicans over their continued disputing of certain local election results last year.
“The American people support our Constitution and will not stand for having their freedoms revoked or our economy torn apart by an unstable president who pretends to be a king,” he concluded.
The president’s threats to primary Republican lawmakers if they don’t vote as the White House appears to be achieving mixed results.
Massie claimed Friday that Trump’s vow of a primary fight will actually help him maintain the seat he’s held through six election cycles.
“The accusation they’re making against me actually reinforces the base that I have in Kentucky,” he told Semafor. “So what they do is, they try to run ‘to the Trump’ of me, instead of to the right of me.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said that the president’s vocal threats against Massie, herself, and other critics have essentially silenced dissent within the Republican Party.
“That’s why you’ve got everybody zip-lip, not saying a word, ’cause they’re afraid they’re going to be taken down, they’re going to be primaried, they’re going to be given names in the media,” she explained on Tuesday.
Loge agreed with Murkowski’s sentiment, suggesting that only vulnerable Republicans will dare openly oppose the president.
“I’ve worked in both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate. I am not used to the House and Senate letting the White House roll over them,” he stated.
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“I think Republicans are more afraid of losing primary elections to Trump-backed challengers than they are losing general elections to an angry electorate,” Loge concluded. “As soon as Republicans are more afraid of losing general elections than the primaries, they will stand up for themselves, and they will stand up for the institution of Congress. Right now, Trump is doing everything he can get away with because he can get away with it.”