WASHINGTON ― Federal courts should back off and let President Donald Trump do what he wants, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Tuesday.
Courts have stymied a range of early executive actions by Trump, from his bid to cancel birthright citizenship to his freeze on federal grants and the wholesale elimination of a federal agency.
“The courts should take a step back and allow these processes to play out. What we’re doing is good and right for the American people,” Johnson said at a press conference in the basement of the Capitol.
Johnson had been asked if he agreed with Vice President JD Vance’s recent statement that “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
The remark raised questions about whether the Trump administration would outright defy a court order and plunge the government into a constitutional crisis.
The legislative, executive and judicial branches of the federal government are supposed to check each other’s power ― if the White House ignores laws and disobeys court orders, the constitutional order collapses.
“This isn’t hyperbole to say that we are staring the death of democracy in the eyes right now,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Monday evening, echoing a common sentiment among Democrats. “The centerpiece of our democracy is that we observe court rulings.”
Johnson did not outright say the Trump administration should ignore laws or court orders.
“Of course, the branches have to respect our constitutional order,” he said, adding that the court injunctions and restraining orders against some of the administration’s actions will be appealed.
Several recent Trump orders appear contrary to federal law. A “buyout” offer encouraging federal workers to retire, for instance, promises federal funds that Congress hasn’t appropriated since the federal government isn’t funded beyond mid-March. And a freeze on financial assistance grants blocked funds Congress did tell the government to spend.
A federal judge said Monday it appeared the Trump administration had violated the judge’s temporary restraining order forbidding the administration from freezing the funds after states pointed to dozens of examples of government agencies and nonprofit service providers being unable to draw federal funds as expected.
“The States have presented evidence in this motion that the Defendants in some cases have continued to improperly freeze federal funds and refused to resume disbursement of appropriated federal funds,” Judge John McConnell, the chief judge of the District Court of Rhode Island, wrote Monday. “The broad categorical and sweeping freeze of federal funds is, as the Court found, likely unconstitutional and has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country.”
It’s not clear if the administration had intentionally defied McConnell’s restraining order ― in the case of grants for Head Start programs, for example, the administration said money had been held up due to a backlog resulting from a surge of requests when the administration first said it would freeze the funds. The National Head Start Association told HuffPost on Monday that it believed the money had already been unfrozen.
Johnson argued that Trump was operating within the leeway lawmakers had given.
“When Congress, for example, appropriates dollars for the executive branch to use, we build in not only in the spirit of a law but in the letter of law a broad amount of discretion for how that is used,” Johnson said. “There is a presupposition in America that the commander in chief is going to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars, that the commander in chief, the president of the United States, is going to command those within his branch of government to do the right thing by the people, to be accountable, to not fund drag shows in, you know, in Middle Eastern countries or South America.”
Trump, for his part, said he was unfamiliar with Vance’s statements suggesting the executive branch ignore the judicial branch of government.
“I don’t know even what you’re talking about,” Trump told HuffPost aboard Air Force One on Sunday. “Neither do you.”