For someone who has so strongly objected in recent weeks to the idea that he\u2019s an authoritarian or a threat to democracy, Donald Trump has a funny way of showing it.<\/p>\n
At a rally Monday in Pennsylvania, the former president said for at least the fourth time that criticizing judges and justices either is or should be illegal. And for what may be the first time, he directly said people who do so should go to jail.<\/p>\n
This was not only a stunning comment about restricting free speech, but it suggests a standard that most likely would have landed Trump in jail long ago. Few modern political figures, after all, have spent so much time attacking judges and others involved in the judicial process, in an obvious attempt to apply political pressure.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s now Trump who says attempts to criticize and apply pressure \u2014 \u201cplaying the ref,\u201d as he often puts it \u2014 should be a crime.<\/p>\n
After praising the Supreme Court for favorable opinions at a rally Monday in Indiana, Pa., the former president turned to those who express the opposite view.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they take a lot of hits because of it,\u201d Trump said of the justices. \u201cIt should be illegal what happens. You know you have these guys that are, like, playing the ref like the great Bobby Knight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese people should be put in jail the way they talk about our judges and our justices, trying to get them to sway their vote, sway their decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has been slowly building toward an explicit threat of jail time. He\u2019s previously said criticizing judges is or should be illegal, often while invoking the Indiana University coaching legend Knight, who famously berated referees.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what Trump has said:<\/p>\n
In Bozeman, Mont., in early August, Trump said what critics of judges were doing was \u201cin my opinion, totally illegal.\u201d<\/span> Monday\u2019s comments go further. Trump specifically invoked jail time \u2014 whereas in Wilkes-Barre, he had referred more obliquely to \u201cvery serious fines and beyond that.\u201d<\/p>\n There have been threats made against Supreme Court justices in recent years, including most notably an alleged assassination attempt in 2022 against Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. Last week, an Alaska man who allegedly threatened to torture and kill six Supreme Court justices was arrested.<\/p>\n But Trump notably didn\u2019t single out obviously illegal activity like that; he instead pitched the idea that merely criticizing judges and justices in ways that are intended to influence them is or should be illegal. In the case of Cannon, he didn\u2019t even cite attempts to influence her \u2014 just the fact that critics were \u201cdemeaning\u201d her.<\/p>\n As for Trump\u2019s more general focus on \u201cplaying the ref,\u201d that\u2019s not only a virtually impossible standard \u2014 how do you distinguish between mere criticism and attempts to influence? \u2014 but it\u2019s also a standard that would be highly problematic for Trump personally.<\/p>\n From the moment he became president, Trump has unleashed a torrent of criticism aimed at judges and justices who not only rule against him, but also ones who would soon rule.<\/p>\n In his first few weeks in office, Trump decried a Republican-appointed judge for striking down his travel ban on people from predominantly Muslim countries. Trump said, \u201cIf something happens, blame him\u201d \u2014 apparently a reference to any terrorist attack that might result. Just think of the message that sent to other judges who might strike down his policies: that they would be blamed for an ensuing tragedy.<\/p>\n Even Trump\u2019s own Supreme Court nominee Neil M. Gorsuch later criticized him for these comments, calling the attacks on the judiciary \u201cdemoralizing.\u201d<\/p>\n Around the same time, Trump warned that a three-judge appeals panel that was set to rule would marginalize themselves politically if they decided the wrong way \u2014 a not-terribly subtle suggestion that he would marshal political opposition to the courts.<\/p>\n Trump went on to do plenty of marshaling, as this laundry list of examples from the Brennan Center for Justice makes clear. His target was often the same Supreme Court he now says shouldn\u2019t be criticized. More recently, as Trump has faced his own legal scrutiny, he has endlessly attacked judges who rule in ways he disagrees with and lodged personal attacks against them and even their families.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been so extensive that it\u2019s difficult to dismiss as Trump merely blowing off steam and expressing disagreement; he\u2019s sent a consistent message that prosecuting one of the most politically powerful people in the country \u2014 him \u2014 and ruling against him will come with a price.<\/p>\n Presidents before Trump generally avoided criticizing the courts, but it isn\u2019t illegal. Now he suggests that it should be \u2014 at least for anyone not named Trump.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n For someone who has so strongly objected in recent weeks to the idea that he\u2019s an authoritarian or a threat to democracy, Donald Trump has a funny way of showing it. At a rally Monday in Pennsylvania, the former president said for at least the fourth time that criticizing judges and justices either is or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10068,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe next week, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Trump said, \u201cI believe it\u2019s illegal what they do. \u2026 I really think it\u2019s illegal what they do with the judges and justices.\u201d He later added that \u201cplaying the ref with our judges and our justices should be punishable by very serious fines and beyond that.\u201d<\/span>
\nThis month, Trump at a news conference suggested prosecuting critics of U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who delivered favorable rulings for him in his federal classified-documents case before ultimately dismissing it. (Previous judges had rejected the justification she accepted, and the Justice Department is appealing.) \u201cI think it should be illegal; that\u2019s what the DOJ should look into,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThe legality of these people taking a brilliant judge and demeaning her, and taking other people that are fair and solid and demeaning them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n