Trump’s press secretary attacks federal judge by name, calls him ‘Democrat activist’
Karoline Leavitt then singled out James Boasberg, the federal judge who is weighing the legality of Donald Trump’s deportation of suspected Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act.
Boasberg attempted over the weekend to prevent planes carrying the migrants from leaving, and has since demanded from the government details of the aircrafts’ exact itineraries to determine if they complied with his order.
“The judge in this case is essentially trying to say that the [resident doesn’t have the executive authority to deport foreign terrorists from our American soil. That is an egregious abuse of the bench. This judge cannot, does not have that authority,” Leavitt said.
“And it’s very, very clear that this is an activist judge who is trying to usurp the president’s authority under the Alien Enemies Act. The president has this power, and that’s why this deportation campaign has continued, and this judge, judge Boasberg is a Democrat activist.”
Republican George W Bush appointed Boasberg as a judge in the District of Columbia’s superior court, then Democrat Barack Obama elevated him the federal court.
This post has been corrected to note that Bush appointed Boasberg to the District of Columbia’s superior court, and that Obama appointed him to the federal court.
Key events
Last week, the Trump administration asked the supreme court to quickly overturn lower court rulings that blocked its attempt to curtail birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants.
The Associated Press reports that the request may also offer the conservative-dominated bench the opportunity to cut down on the practice of a single judge halting a policy nationwide. But, for whatever reason, the justices do not seem interested in ruling quickly on the issue.
Here’s more, from the AP:
The Supreme Court seems to be in no hurry to address an issue that has irritated Republican and Democratic administrations alike: the ability of a single judge to block a nationwide policy.
Federal judges responding to a flurry of lawsuits have stopped or slowed one Trump administration action after another, from efforts to restrict birthright citizenship to freezes on domestic and international spending.
While several justices have expressed concern about the use of so-called nationwide, or universal, injunctions, the high court has sidestepped multiple requests to do something about them.
The latest plea comes in the form of an emergency appeal the Justice Department filed with the court last week, seeking to narrow orders issued by judges in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington that prohibit the nationwide enforcement of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump to restrict birthright citizenship.
The justices usually order the other side in an emergency appeal to respond in a few days or a week. But in this case, they have set a deadline of April 4, without offering any explanation.
The Trump administration’s cancellation of an affordable repayment plan for student loans has prompted a lawsuit from the American Federal of Teachers, the Guardian’s Michael Sainato reports:
A top teachers union has sued the US Department of Education after it stopped processing applications for affordable repayment plans of student loans last month and disabled the online application for the programs.
The American Federation of Teachers, or AFT – one the country’s largest unions, representing 1.8 million workers – filed a lawsuit alleging the sweeping action violates federal law.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington DC, seeks a court order to restore access to these programs.
Another court order last month shut out borrowers of student loans from participating in four income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, which tie income to student loan payments, designed to keep payments affordable and avoid defaults on loans.
“By effectively freezing the nation’s student loan system, the new administration seems intent on making life harder for working people, including for millions of borrowers who have taken on student debt so they can go to college,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT. “The former president tried to fix the system for 45 million Americans, but the new president is breaking it again.”
Lauren Gambino
The Democratic Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, is standing by his vote to fund the government, even as the calls for him to step aside grow.
“I believe so strongly I did the right thing for all the flack I’m getting,” Schumer said in an interview on Morning Joe.
He said he understood Democrats’ desire to stand up to Trump, but warned that forcing a shutdown was not the way to do it. “Let’s stand up to him smart. Let’s not give him the keys to the kingdom.”
One major activist group, Indivisible, has already called on Schumer to resign as leader and constituents are raising the issue at town halls. According to Axios, at least two House Democrats responded yes when asked at a town hall whether Senate Democrats need new leadership.
Schumer this weekend cancelled several stops on a tour for his forthcoming book, citing security concerns after progressive groups announced plans to protest the New York Democrat’s decision to lend his vote to a Republican funding bill.
Schumer has argued that he does not support the bill, but feared a government shutdown at the exact moment Donald Trump and Elon Musk are trying to downsize the federal workforce would have been a far worse outcome.
“If we shut down the government and they started doing all these bad things, in a month, those folks would be saying, hey, save Medicaid, save our rural hospitals, save this, save that, and we’ll say we can’t, there’s a government shutdown. And then they would come to us and say, so why’d you let it happen?” Schumer argued on Morning Joe. “I prevented that from happening, and I think my caucus, no matter which way they voted, understands that.
The House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, has declined to say publicly whether he continues to support Schumer. On Tuesday the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi offered a sharp critique of Schumer’s strategy: “I myself don’t give away anything for nothing. I think that’s what happened the other day,” she said, according to Politico. Unlike Jeffries, Pelosi said she still has confidence in Schumer’s leadership.
Citing uncertainty, Federal Reserve cuts US economic growth forecast
Callum Jones
Officials at the US Federal Reserve cut their US economic growth forecasts and raised their projections for price growth as they kept interest rates on hold.
“Uncertainty around the economic outlook has increased,” the central bank said in a statement, as Donald Trump’s bid to overhaul the global economy with sweeping tariffs sparks concern over inflation and growth.
Policymakers at the Fed expect inflation to increase by an average rate of 2.7% this year, according to projections released on Wednesday, up from a previous estimate of 2.5%.
They expect US gross domestic product (GDP) – a broad measure of economic health – to rise by 1.7% this year, down from an estimate of 2.1% in December. Officials also revised down their projections for GDP growth in 2026 and 2027, to 1.8%.
Uncertainty is “unusually elevated”, the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, cautioned, as the Trump administration attempts to engineer radical economic change. Some of the increase in the Fed’s inflation expectations was “clearly” due to tariffs, he said.
White House says Trump briefed Zelenskyy on conversation with Putin, ceasefire terms
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt provided a readout of Donald Trump’s call today with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying the US president briefed his Ukrainian counterpart on his conversation yesterday with Vladimir Putin.
Trump and Zelenskyy agreed on “a partial ceasefire against energy” targets, while the Ukrainian president “asked for additional air defence systems to protect his civilians, particularly Patriot missile systems”. According to Leavitt, Trump “agreed to work with him to find what was available, particularly in Europe.”
For more on this, follow our European live blogger Jakub Krupa:
Leavitt also outlined why Donald Trump moved to fire two Democratic appointees to the Federal Trade Commission.
“The time was right to let these people go, and the president absolutely has the authority to do it,” Leavitt said.
It is widely suspected that the Trump administration hopes the firings will prompt a supreme court case that results in the conservative majority overturn a longstanding precedent and allowing presidents to make such terminations. Asked about that, Leavitt said:
We have to fight it all the way to the supreme court. We certainly will.
Karoline Leavitt also offered the administration’s side of the story when it came to the takeover of the US Institute for Peace.
Agents of the department of government efficiency (Doge) entered its building on Monday, prompting a lawsuit from the institute saying the takeover was illegal. Here’s Leavitt’s recounting of the incident:
We were made aware of this story by individuals at Doge, at Elon Musk’s team, and also at the State Department, who were unable to access this building. And it became very clear that there was a concerted effort amongst the rogue bureaucrats at the United States Institute of Peace to actually physically barricade themselves essentially inside of the building to prevent political appointees of this administration who work at the direction of the president of the United States to get into the building.
…
Staff contacted [Washington DC police] in an attempt to prevent Doge personnel from entering. They barricaded the doors. They also disabled telephone lines, internet connections and other IT infrastructure within the building. They distributed flyers internally, encouraging each other to basically prevent these individuals from accessing the building.
I use this to say this is what Doge and this administration is facing. It’s a resistance from bureaucrats who don’t want to see change in this city. President Trump was elected on an overwhelming mandate to seek change and implement change, and this is unacceptable behavior.
The press secretary was further pressed on if the Trump administration would authorize more flights to El Salvador.
The three planes that may have departed the United States in violation of a court order arrived in El Salvador, where the suspected Venezuelan gang members on board are being held in the country’s troubled prison system.
“We don’t have any flights planned specifically, but we will continue with the mass deportations,” Karoline Leavitt replied.
A reporter pointed out to Karoline Leavitt that James Boasberg was a George W Bush appointee. She countered by saying that most of the injunctions brought against the Trump administration so far have come from Democratic-appointed judges.
“This is a clear concerted effort by leftists who don’t like this president and are trying to impose or slow down his agenda,” she said.
Leavitt also reiterated that Trump thinks Boasberg should be impeached, politically impossible though that may be, and said she expects the supreme court to weigh in on the case:
It’s incumbent upon the supreme court to rein in these activist judges.
Trump’s press secretary attacks federal judge by name, calls him ‘Democrat activist’
Karoline Leavitt then singled out James Boasberg, the federal judge who is weighing the legality of Donald Trump’s deportation of suspected Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act.
Boasberg attempted over the weekend to prevent planes carrying the migrants from leaving, and has since demanded from the government details of the aircrafts’ exact itineraries to determine if they complied with his order.
“The judge in this case is essentially trying to say that the [resident doesn’t have the executive authority to deport foreign terrorists from our American soil. That is an egregious abuse of the bench. This judge cannot, does not have that authority,” Leavitt said.
“And it’s very, very clear that this is an activist judge who is trying to usurp the president’s authority under the Alien Enemies Act. The president has this power, and that’s why this deportation campaign has continued, and this judge, judge Boasberg is a Democrat activist.”
Republican George W Bush appointed Boasberg as a judge in the District of Columbia’s superior court, then Democrat Barack Obama elevated him the federal court.
This post has been corrected to note that Bush appointed Boasberg to the District of Columbia’s superior court, and that Obama appointed him to the federal court.
White House accuses federal judges of ‘acting erroneously’ amid battle over deportation flights
Speaking from the podium of the White House briefing room, Donald Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, accused federal judges of ruling against the president for partisan reasons.
“I would like to point out that the judges in this country are acting erroneously. We have judges who are acting as partisan activists from the bench. They are trying to dictate policy for the president of the United States. They are trying to clearly slow walk this administration’s agenda, and it’s unacceptable,” Leavitt said.
The press secretary was responding to a question about the federal judge who had ruled against Trump’s attempt to deport suspected Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act, but did not name him specifically.
She continued:
It’s incredibly apparent that there is a concerted effort by the far left to judge shop, to pick judges who are clearly acting as partisan activists from the bench in an attempt to derail this president’s agenda. We will not allow that happen, and not only are they usurping the will of the [resident and the chief executive of our country, but they are undermining the will of the American public, tens of millions of Americans who duly elected this president to implement the policies that are coming out of this White House.
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer has condemned Donald Trump’s firing of two Democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC):
“A bipartisan FTC is vital to enforcing anti-trust laws and consumer protections. By illegally firing two senate-confirmed Democratic commissioners, Trump has given a green light to businesses across the country to gouge consumers and skyrocket prices for American families,” Schumer said.
“Make no mistake about it: this decision will directly lead to higher prices for Americans. While President Trump and Senate Republicans continue to put their thumbs on the scale for billionaires and corporations, Democrats are committed to fighting for American families.”
Since taking office, Trump has terminated Democratic appointees to independent agencies across the federal government, prompting accusations that he is overstepping his bounds. Some judges have agreed.
The day so far
The Trump administration continues to face skepticism from federal courts, particularly when it comes to their attempts to push the boundaries of immigration enforcement. A federal judge ordered Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil’s case moved from Louisiana, where he is being detained and where judges may be more conservative, to New Jersey. Separately, justice department lawyers sparred with federal judge James Boasberg over his demand for details of three migrant deportation flights that may have taken place in violation of his order. The government criticized the judge’s request and ask that he drop his noon deadline for them to answer his questions. Boasberg partially agreed, giving the Trump administration until 12pm tomorrow to either answer his questions, or outline national security related reasons why they are not able to.
Here’s what else is going on today:
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Donald Trump spoke with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and said they were “very much on track” towards a ceasefire agreement.
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The US Institute of Peace has sued after agents from the “department of government efficiency” took over its building, with the help of police.
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The University of Pennsylvania lost $175m in federal funding at the order of the Trump administration, which accused them of allowing transgender athletes to play.
The deportations of suspected Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act came as Donald Trump implements hardline policies to arrest undocumented immigrants and swiftly deport them.
That push includes reauthorizing the detention of entire families, something he allowed during his first administration, but which Joe Biden stopped. The practice essentially means children will be locked up alongside their parents, and today, 21 Democratic senators asked the Trump administration to curb the practice:
We strongly object to the failed and inhumane practice of detaining migrant families. We are deeply disturbed by reports that your Administration has revived this cruel policy, which has proven to be ineffective, costly, and devastating for children and families.
There is a widespread consensus in the United States that family detention poses serious risks to the physical and mental well-being of children. Medical and child welfare experts— including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association—have consistently condemned this practice, warning that even short-term detention fails to meet basic child welfare standards and exposes children to lasting trauma. Even the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) own medical consultants have concluded that family detention presents a “high risk of harm to children and families.” The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Advisory Committee on Family Residential Centers also determined that family detention should be discontinued.
Here’s more on what family detention means, in practice:
