After losing Kennedy Center case, Trump throws tantrum, calls for judge’s impeachment
After losing Kennedy Center case, Trump throws tantrum, calls for judge’s impeachment
The president appeared quite outraged after a federal court ruled that he had to follow the law regarding renaming the Kennedy Center.
Shortly before Christmas, Donald Trump’s handpicked allies, mindful of the president’s obsession with self-glorification, claimed that they had renamed the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, adding the Republican incumbent’s name to the venue.
Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, an ex officio member of the center’s board who was excluded from voting on the name change, quickly filed suit, arguing not only that the process was improper, but that the entire gambit was illegal for the simplest of reasons: A name change required congressional approval, and that had not happened.
With this in mind, it wasn’t too big of a surprise when U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper ruled Friday that Team Trump’s gambit was obviously illegal and gave the Republican operation 14 days to undo what it had done.
On Friday afternoon, when much of the world was waiting for the president to shed light on his plans for the war in Iran, he instead published a 580-word tirade to his social media platform, whining at great length about the judge’s ruling and suggesting that he was prepared to give up on his Kennedy Center ambitions altogether. From the online rant:
[B]ased on the fact that the Radical Left Democrats care more about opposing your favorite President, ME, than saving a dying Performing Arts Center, almost all of which lose large amounts of money throughout the Country, we are going to be working with Congress to transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it. […]
I have instructed the Department of Commerce to make all necessary arrangements with Congress to allow a full and complete transfer of this Institution, giving them the responsibility for its Operation, Maintenance, and Management.
In other words, if the courts say Trump has to follow the law, he’ll stomp his feet, take his ball and go home.
On Saturday morning, the president kept going, publishing a 721-word harangue that went after the judge’s wife, before telling the public that the nation’s “Court System is RIGGED.”
For good measure, on Saturday night, the Republican added that the judge and his wife “should be ashamed of themselves,” before concluding, “Judge Cooper, like numerous other Crooked Judges on my cases, should be IMPEACHED.”
The key phrase in that sentence was “numerous other.” Two months into Trump’s second term, he became the first modern American president to explicitly call for the impeachment of a sitting federal judge for ruling in a way the White House didn’t like, and the scope of his vision quickly grew.
“We have bad judges, we have very bad judges,” Trump said last spring. “These are judges that shouldn’t be allowed.”
A group of congressional Republicans apparently interpreted Trump’s appeal as a directive and got to work introducing impeachment resolutions against judges who ruled contrary to the White House’s preferences. At last count, GOP lawmakers have filed impeachment resolutions against eight federal judges, and as radical as the crusade is, House Speaker Mike Johnson endorsed the effort earlier this year.
It stands to reason that Cooper could face an impeachment resolution of his own, despite national polling that found 70% of Americans are opposed to impeaching federal judges over rulings the president doesn’t like.
Israel kills 8 in Lebanon after Trump said Israel and Hezbollah agreed to de-escalate
Israeli drone strikes on southern Lebanon on Tuesday reportedly killed eight people, including a father and his son and daughter.
BEIRUT (AP) — Israeli drone strikes on southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed eight people, including a father and his son and daughter, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said Israel and Hezbollah agreed to dial back fighting.
Israel threatened on Monday to strike Beirut’s southern suburbs, causing panic in the Lebanese capital as thousands fled to safer areas and Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel. Israeli forces recently made their deepest incursion into Lebanon in 26 years, but Beirut has been mostly spared over the past six weeks, apart from two targeted attacks on the city’s southern suburbs in May.
Trump announced later Monday, after a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and communicating with the Lebanese militant group through mediators, that “there will be no Troops going to Beirut.”
Lebanon’s State-run National News Agency reported Tuesday that an Israeli drone strike hit a car on the road linking the southern town of Marjayoun with the city of Nabatiyeh, killing James Karam, a dentist from the nearby Christian town of Qlayaa, along with his daughter and son. The Lebanese army said two soldiers were lightly wounded when a separate drone targeted them on a road outside the city.
A drone strike on the village of Jibchit killed two Syrians who worked at a plant nursery, the agency reported, while another on the nearby village of Toul killed two people. A third strike hit a car near the village of Harouf, killing one person.
NNA also reported that an Israeli airstrike on Monday killed six in the southern village of Marwaniyeh.
Hezbollah said Tuesday its fighters fired anti-tank missiles on Israeli troops who were pushing into the southern village of Hadatha, about 4 miles from the Israeli border. Sirens sounded in several areas in northern Israel, the military said in a statement, adding that “a suspicious aerial target” was identified in the area in which Israeli soldiers are operating in southern Lebanon, and that no injuries were reported.
Despite a Washington-brokered ceasefire reached in April, the two sides have continued to exchange strikes after Israel targeted areas in Lebanon, saying it was for self-defense.
The latest exchanges came as a second round of talks between Israel and Lebanon is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington, where Lebanese negotiators are set to seek a full ceasefire that will prevent future attacks. The Israel-Lebanon talks that began in April in Washington were the first in more than three decades between the countries, which have no formal diplomatic relations.
The fighting presents a major obstacle to the emerging deal to extend the ceasefire in the Iran war that erupted after the United States and Israel struck the Islamic Kingdom on Feb.28. Tehran wants any agreement to include a complete ceasefire in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has rejected direct talks, counting on pressure from Iran.
The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has killed 3,433 people in Lebanon and displaced more than 1 million people. According to Netanyahu’s office, at least 27 Israeli soldiers and a defense contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon. Two civilians have also been killed in northern Israel.
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Israel’s military said late Monday that a soldier was killed in southern Lebanon. It added that seven more soldiers were wounded in the incident, three of them severely.
Hezbollah’s use of hard-to-detect fiber-optic drones has been deadly for the Israeli military, which is struggling to respond.
