Even for Donald Trump, this is a new level of unhinged
After the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Donald Trump must actively facilitate the return of mistakenly deported Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador prison, Trump and his regime publicly hinted that they might try to simply ignore the ruling. This was obviously an attempt at creating a self fulfilling prophecy. But with Trump’s approval rating continuing to plummet, he doesn’t have the muscle to pull off overthrowing the Supreme Court. Instead he’s doing something that’s unhinged even for him.
Not long ago Trump’s ICE agents tried to enter a courtroom to arrest an immigrant just as the charges against him were being dismissed. The judge refused to cooperate. So now Trump had had the FBI arrest the judge on federal contempt of court charges. That’s right, Trump has arrested a judge.
Picking on a local judge is clearly an attempt at looking strong and defiant, in the hope of distracting everyone from the fact that Trump doesn’t have the muscle to take on the US Supreme Court. So while this is intended as being seen as a power move, it’s really more of a wuss move. The federal court system is not going to allow itself to be used as a weapon against a fellow judge who’s done nothing wrong. These charges are going nowhere, and the Trump regime knows it.
In addition to being a distraction, this arrest allows the Trump regime to tell Donald Trump that it’s doing something about how badly the judicial system is kicking Trump’s butt. Like all weak bullies, Trump is content to pick on someone much smaller than him. Trump and his regime don’t have the guts to try to arrest John Roberts, if you know what I mean.
The question now is where this goes from here – and I’m not talking about the arrested judge. Like I said, the imaginary criminal case against the judge is going nowhere. The real story is how this plays out in the court of public opinion. If Trump’s arrest of a judge causes his approval rating to drop even further, and it probably will, then it’ll only weaken Trump. So if Trump wants to keep pulling this kind of stunt, so be it.
That said, we now know that Trump and his regime are unhinged enough to do something like having the FBI arrest a judge on imaginary charges. I think Trump just made a major strategic mistake. But the stakes obviously just got a lot higher.
