DOGE boss Elon Musk once again called for judges to be impeached hours after the Trump administration was handed three losses in court over the president’s dismantling of federal agencies.
In the span of 90 minutes, judges in Washington, D.C. and Seattle blocked President Donald Trump’s directive to freeze federal grants and loans, ordered the administration to reinstate funding for foreign aid contracts with the U.S. Agency for International Development, and temporarily halted the president’s executive order that paused the refugee admissions program.
The world’s richest person posted on his X social media platform hours later to voice his frustration with America’s centuries-old system of checks and balances.
“The only way to restore rule of the people in America is to impeach judges. No one is above the law, including judges,” noted Musk, forgetting to add the president.
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He added: “That is what it took to fix El Salvador. Same applies to America.”
In 2021, El Salvador’s assembly, under the control of authoritarian President Nayib Bukele, voted to remove the top five of its Supreme Court judges and the attorney general, sparking criticism by several countries, including the United States.
Bukele not surprisingly hailed Musk’s plan to eliminate court oversight. “If you don’t impeach the corrupt judges, you CANNOT fix the country,” Bukele posted on X.
In the U.S. only Congress has the authority to impeach and remove federal judges, and not simply because a defendant is unhappy with a ruling.
The House can impeach a judge with a simple majority but the judge can only be removed after a trial in the Senate that results in a conviction by a two-thirds majority. It has only happened 15 times in U.S. history, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
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An hour after the initial post, Musk added: “If ANY judge ANYWHERE can block EVERY Presidential order EVERYWHERE, we do NOT have democracy, we have TYRANNY of the JUDICIARY.”
Utah Senator Mike Lee agreed, writing: “Corrupt judges should be impeached and removed. Pass it on if you agree.”
Stephen Vladeck, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and an expert on federal courts, underscored that there is a solution for judgements one disagrees with — and it’s not impeachment. He explained on X: “You don’t impeach judges because you disagree with their decisions; you appeal the decisions.”
This isn’t the first time the tech billionaire has called on judges to be impeached.
Earlier this month, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing the Treasury’s payment systems after 19 states sued President Donald Trump and the Treasury Department. Musk fumed about the decision: “A corrupt judge protecting corruption. He needs to be impeached NOW!”
Vice President JD Vance also chimed in with his thoughts on the judiciary branch’s authority, writing on X at the time: “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.”
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