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WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Trump administration officials are openly questioning the judiciary’s authority to serve as a check on executive power as the new president’s sweeping agenda faces growing pushback from the courts.
Over the past 24 hours, officials ranging from billionaire Elon Musk to Vice President JD Vance have not only criticized a federal judge’s decision early Saturday that blocks Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Treasury Department records, but have also attacked the legitimacy of judicial oversight, a fundamental pillar of American democracy, which is based on the separation of powers.
“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” Vance wrote on X on Sunday morning.
That post came hours after Musk said overnight that the judge who ruled against him should be impeached.
“A corrupt judge protecting corruption. He needs to be impeached NOW!” said Musk, who has been tasked by President Donald Trump with rooting out waste across the federal government.
Musk also shared a post from a user who had suggested that the Trump administration openly defy the court order.
“I don’t like the precedent it sets when you defy a judicial ruling, but I’m just wondering what other options are these judges leaving us,” the person had written, in part.
The court order against Musk barred his team temporarily from accessing a Treasury system that contains sensitive personal data, such as Social Security and bank account numbers for millions of Americans. Musk and his team say they are simply rooting through government systems to identify waste and abuse at the direction of the Republican president.
Deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller called the ruling “an assault on the very idea of democracy itself.”
“What we continue to see here is the idea that rogue bureaucrats who are elected by no one, who answer to no one, who have lifetime tenure jobs, who we would be told can never be fired, which, of course, is not true, that the power has been cemented and accumulated for years, whether it be with the Treasury bureaucrats or the FBI bureaucrats or the CIA bureaucrats or the USAID bureaucrats, with this unelected shadow force that is running our government and running our country,” Miller said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”
The pushback comes as the administration’s efforts to dismantle government agencies and eliminate large swaths of the federal workforce are being held up by the courts. Judges have also blocked Trump, at least temporarily, from moving forward with mass federal buyouts, from placing thousands of USAID workers on leave and from implementing an executive order that seeks to end birthright citizenship for anyone born in the U.S.
Early Saturday, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued a preliminary injunction after 19 Democratic attorneys general sued, alleging the Trump administration allowed Musk’s team access to the Treasury Department’s central payment system in violation of federal law.
“We’re very disappointed with the judges that would make such a ruling, but we have a long way to go,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while he flew from Florida to New Orleans to attend the Super Bowl. He added: “No judge should frankly be allowed to make that kind of a decision.”
The payment system handles tax refunds, Social Security benefits, veterans’ benefits and much more, sending out trillions of dollars every year while containing an expansive network of Americans’ personal and financial data. A hearing is set for Feb. 14.
Democrats have been sounding alarms over Musk and Trump’s efforts, including efforts to halt spending that has already been appropriated by Congress. Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress is the body in charge of spending.
“I think this is the most serious Constitutional crisis the country has faced, certainly, since Watergate,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said on ABC’s “This Week.” “This is a red alert moment when this entire country has to understand that our democracy is at risk.”
Murphy expressed concern that the courts are ill-prepared for the onslaught they are facing.
“The pace of this assault on the Constitution in order to serve the billionaire class, it is absolutely dizzying. And so, you have to run a full-scale opposition,” Murphy said. “Ultimately, you’ve got to bring the American public into this conversation because we need our Republican colleagues in the House and in the Senate ultimately to put a stop to this. You cannot just rely on the court system.”
Republicans, who have largely stood in lockstep behind the president since he was sworn in for a second term, did so again on Sunday.
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan blasted the court ruling for the Treasury Department case while arguing that the president should be able to implement his agenda as he sees fit.
“I assume we will argue this out in court, like the other 17 or 18 decisions we have seen in the last several days. That all is going to get argued out in court. And, frankly, we knew the left, we knew the Democrats were going to do this,” the Republican said on CNN’s “Inside Politics.”
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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville aboard Air Force One contributed to this report.
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