Trump and allies celebrated court orders against Biden they now claim are ‘tyrannical’

President Donald Trump and top allies who have questioned the constitutionality of recent court orders blocking the administration’s agenda touted similar rulings by federal courts as “great news” and “brilliant” when they paused President Joe Biden’s policies.

President Donald Trump and top allies who have questioned the constitutionality of recent court orders blocking the administration’s agenda touted similar rulings by federal courts as “great news” and “brilliant” when they paused President Joe Biden’s policies. When a federal judge in Texas halted a Biden administration pause on deportations six days after Trump was inaugurated, presidential aide Stephen Miller took to social media to describe the temporary restraining order as “great news.” When a judge in Louisiana blocked Biden aides from asking social media platforms to remove content, Trump called the decision “amazing.” “Just last week, in a historic ruling, a brilliant federal judge ordered the Biden administration to cease and desist from their illegal and unconstitutional censorship in collusion with social media,” Trump told an audience in Florida in 2023. (The Supreme Court months later would decide in Biden’s favor.) Trump has faced a barrage of adverse initial rulings since his inauguration that have paused his efforts to end birthright citizenship, fire leaders at independent government agencies and withhold spending approved by Congress. Those orders are not final but are instead designed to give courts the time needed to review the law. Still, they can have enormous on-the-ground impacts, and they have allowed Trump’s allies to pour fuel on the notion that his critics are seeking out friendly judges to stall his agenda — just as conservatives often did during Biden’s administration. The temporary orders, handed down by a single federal judge but often with nationwide ramifications, are exactly the kind of court decisions that the president and his allies are now railing against. Vice President JD Vance, a Yale Law School graduate, carped on social media that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”