'The authoritarian playbook': Trump targets judges, lawyers ... and law itself

Source: The Guardian

‘The authoritarian playbook’: Trump targets judges, lawyers … and law itself

Attacks on key US institutions seek to stifle dissent, exact revenge and subordinate them to the president, experts say

Peter Stone
Mon 24 Mar 2025 11.00 GMT
Last modified on Mon 24 Mar 2025 17.02 GMT

As Donald Trump aggressively seeks revenge against multiple foes in the US, he’s waging a vendetta using executive orders and social media against judges, law firms, prosecutors, the press and other vital American institutions to stifle dissent and exact retribution.

Legal scholars say the president’s menacing attacks, some of which Trump’s biggest campaign backer, the billionaire Elon Musk, has echoed, are aimed at silencing critics of his radical agenda and undercut the rule of law in authoritarian ways that expand his own powers.

“Trump’s moves are from the authoritarian playbook,” said the Harvard law school lecturer and retired Massachusetts judge Nancy Gertner. “You need to delegitimize institutions that could be critics. Trump is seeking to use the power of the presidency to delegitimize institutions including universities, law firms, judges and others. It’s the opposite of American democracy.”

In a stunning move on Tuesday, Trump railed that a top Washington DC judge ought to be impeached for ruling to halt the deportation of hundreds of Venezuelans allegedly including gang members, sparking the chief justice of the supreme court, John Roberts, hours later to issue a strong statement against calls to impeach judges for their rulings.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/24/trump-judges-impeachment-law-doge

Alternate link: https://www.yahoo.com/news/authoritarian-playbook-trump-targets-judges-110004659.html