US Chief Justice John Roberts said on Tuesday that Donald Trump’s threat to impeach federal judges was “not an appropriate response” to disagreements about their rulings.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in a statement. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
The rare public rebuke from the most senior justice on America’s highest court comes as Trump and his allies have repeatedly railed against federal judges who have ruled against his administration, escalating tensions between the presidency and its judiciary that risk tipping into a constitutional crisis.
The chief justice’s intervention came shortly after the president attacked a federal judge in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday morning, in apparent reference to a ruling blocking deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador without a hearing.
“This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!” Trump wrote.
He added: “This Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected President — He didn’t WIN the popular VOTE (by a lot!).”
Federal judges have initiated a number of temporary restraining orders against Trump’s actions on everything from immigration to sacking of government workers.
The White House has insisted that courts have gone too far in blocking the president’s actions, accusing them of “judicial activism”. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Roberts’s statement.
Deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s second term agenda, in a post on X last week condemned “radical rogue judges”, claiming they “have no authority to administer the executive branch”.
Trump’s comments stem from fraught legal proceedings around aircraft that at the weekend flew more than 250 alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador under an executive order that invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to accelerate deportations.
The flights occurred despite a ruling by James Boasberg, a federal judge in the District of Columbia, ordering the planes be grounded or turned around.
Opposing counsel accused the government of defying Boasberg’s directive — a claim the Trump administration has rejected. Government lawyers in a fraught hearing on Monday refused to share details about the flights with Boasberg, citing national security risks, according to reports.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday said the “administration acted within the confines of the law” and “within the president’s constitutional authority and under the authority granted to him under the Alien Enemies Act”.
