Trump decries 'ridiculous' order from 'this so-called judge' on Twitter

(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

published 4 February 2017

Early Saturday morning, President Trump tweeted an angry reaction to a federal judge's temporary block on his immigration executive order:

That post came after a series of tweets in which the president defended the substance of his order. "When a country is no longer able to say who can, and who cannot , come in & out, especially for reasons of safety &.security - big trouble!" Trump argued, adding, "Interesting that certain Middle-Eastern countries agree with the ban. They know if certain people are allowed in it's death & destruction!"

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U.S. District Judge James Robart, who issued the block, is a George W. Bush appointee in Seattle, and Trump's comment questioning his legitimacy prompted immediate backlash. "This is dangerous language," said MSNBC host Joe Scarborough. "Judicial independence is the bedrock of the US Constitution." Conservative independent candidate Evan McMullin similarly argued that though Trump is welcome to disagree with the court's decision, "undermining the legitimacy of a judge and the Judiciary Branch is a threat to the Republic."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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