Donald Trump's chaotic rush to push through a wave of changes to the government via executive orders is hitting "a wall" with judges who are already expressing anger and frustration in their rulings.
That is according to a report from Politico's Kyle Cheney who noted that over nine judges across the country have entered the fray as the president and his appointees conduct their "shock and awe" campaign to upend democratic norms.
According to the report, Trump's agenda suffered several body blows on Friday when Trump appointee, U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, temporarily shut down efforts by the president and Elon Musk to place 2,200 USAID employees on leave. That was followed by Judge Paul Engelmayer halting Musk and his young DOGE staffers from rifling through sensitive Treasury records.
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As Cheney noted, in some of the rulings there is an undercurrent of "visceral fury" aimed at the Trump administration.
Longtime U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, a Ronald Reagan appointee, took umbrage at a plan to undermine birthright citizenship and pointedly wrote in his ruling, "It has become ever more apparent that to our president, the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals. The rule of law is, according to him, something to navigate around or simply ignore.”
"Coughenour’s stunning assessment of a sitting president was also a stark contrast to the GOP-led Congress’ gentle compliance with Trump’s efforts to dramatically expand the powers of his office," Politico's Cheney wrote before adding, "For now, the initial decisions to slow down the onslaught are having widespread effects, forcing federal agencies to disclose more details about their opaque plans for the workforce, establishing guidelines for the handling of sensitive government data that Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” has been gobbling up and raising sharp questions about Trump’s effort to impound swaths of government spending authorized by Congress."
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