Donal Trump decided to once again start his day by showcasing to the world his deeply ingrained autocratic fantasies. He took to Twitter to openly attack the system of checks and balances in the United States by singling out one of the three branches of government: the judiciary.
Trump called the court system “broken and unfair” because it allows what he calls the “opposing side” to beat him. The president is referring to the recent ruling by a U.S. District Court judge in San Francisco, which blocked Trump’s attacks on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
The court told the president’s administration that it was legally obligated to resume accepting renewal applications for DACA. The judge, William Alsup, stated that Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ justification for suddenly ended DACA was “based on a flawed legal premise.” The ruling should allow DACA recipients who missed the renewal deadline to renew now.
Meanwhile, the president hopes to hold DACA hostage and use it to barter with Democrats in order to obtain funding for his xenophobic, wasteful, and ultimately pointless Mexican border. He’s betrayed hundreds of thousands of people who have been in this country since childhood and is frustrated that his betrayal might be overturned. He tweeted:
It just shows everyone how broken and unfair our Court System is when the opposing side in a case (such as DACA) always runs to the 9th Circuit and almost always wins before being reversed by higher courts.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018
Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA), who has been a consistently outspoken critic of Trump, immediately responded to the tweet, breaking down the 9th Circuit court’s decision in terms that our infamously dense president might understand. He explained that judges do their best to apply the law to the facts of a given case.Sometimes it goes well for the executive branch, sometimes poorly. In this case, it went poorly for Trump but great for the country.
Lieu then pointed out the obvious but worth repeating point that attacking the judiciary is unpresidential and petty. The president is undermining our most foundational institutions, and Lieu wasn’t afraid to point it out.
Dear @realDonaldTrump: Having clerked on the 9th Circuit, I know the judges are trying their best to apply the law to the facts. Sometimes they agree with you, sometimes they don't. But repeatedly attacking judges is not presidential & shows a pettiness unbecoming of your office. https://t.co/X1tCvpW7vk
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) January 10, 2018
The country is lucky to have leaders like Lieu willing to stand up the president’s unconstitutional rhetoric. His anti-democratic tendencies can’t be allowed to become normalized, and he must be called out at every opportunity.
