Trump rant about impeaching a ‘radical left lunatic’ judge sparks rare scolding from chief justice

Washington: President Donald Trump has provoked the chief justice of the Supreme Court into a rare public rebuke after he called for a “radical left lunatic” judge to be impeached amid an escalating war against the American judiciary.

The Trump administration was enraged when the chief judge of Washington’s federal district court, James Boasberg, ordered a stop to the deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members rounded up by immigration authorities under a rarely used wartime law.

Though it is just one of many legal fights underway against Trump’s agenda, this battle has become arguably the most high-stakes, with the administration accused of ignoring or even wilfully violating the judge’s order to halt the removals and turn around planes that were already in the air.

On Tuesday morning, local time, following another hearing in the case, Trump urged Congress to remove Boasberg from his post, calling him a “radical left lunatic of a judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama”.

“I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do,” Trump wrote. “This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!! WE DON’T WANT VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINALS, MANY OF THEM DERANGED MURDERERS, IN OUR COUNTRY.”

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Brandon Gill, a rookie Republican congressman from Texas and member of the House judiciary committee, duly submitted impeachment articles against the judge, accusing him of creating a constitutional crisis.

In a rare public statement, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts – a conservative appointed by George W. Bush – rebuked Trump over the comments and implicitly accused the president of overstepping the mark.

“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said.