Trump Administration Ramps Up Rhetoric Targeting The Courts Amid Mounting Legal Setbacks

The new populist president railed against the judiciary as they blocked his aggressive moves to restructure his country's government and economy.

This was in Mexico, where former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador eventually pushed through changes that required every judge in his country to be elected rather than appointed. The reforms, and the promise of more by his successor, caused markets to lose confidence in his country's reliability as a place to invest, which led its currency to weaken.

It was one in a series of assaults that populists around the globe have launched on the courts in recent years, and legal observers now wonder if the United States could be next.

As the courts deliver a series of setbacks to his dramatic attempt to change the federal government without congressional approval, President Donald Trump's supporters are echoing some of the rhetoric and actions that elsewhere have preceded attacks on the judiciary.

Trump's deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, posted last week on X: "Under the precedents now being established by radical rogue judges, a district court in Hawaii could enjoin troop movements in Iraq. Judges have no authority to administer the executive branch. Or to nullify the results of a national election."