Instead, it’s that as the rest of the country was gearing up for the weekend, lower court judges spent Friday telling Trump to get bent in not one, not two, not three, but four different cases.
In the space of just a few hours, Trump was told that he couldn’t start funding his $1.7 billion slush fund for cronies and treason enthusiasts. Then, a different judge ruled he had to explain exactly how the deal for that little slush fund came about in the first place.
Another judge said the administration couldn’t just waive a magic wand and drop pending criminal charges against some of his most seditious followers who helped with his Jan. 6 insurrection without any justification as to why. Finally, yet another judge told him his name was coming off the Kennedy Center, and he didn’t get to close and renovate it either.
You get exactly one guess as to which of these Trump is angriest about.
No, it wasn’t the ruling by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema enjoining the administration from transferring any taxpayer money to set up Trump’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” considering any claims for money from the fund, or disbursing any money. That one came in a case filed by plaintiffs who actually were victims of weaponization by the Justice Department—Trump’s Justice Department, that is.
A former federal prosecutor fired because he had worked on Jan. 6 cases, a law professor prosecuted for protesting ICE, the city of New Haven, the National Abortion Federation, and watchdog group Common Cause all sued to block the fund. Judge Brinkema’s decision freezes everything until after a hearing on June 12 and orders the administration to respond to the plaintiffs’ veritable laundry list of ways in which this thing is completely illegal.
Related | Show us the tariff money, and 35 judges can’t be wrong
It also isn’t the ruling by Judge Kathleen Williams on a motion from 35 retired federal judges that took the longest of shots and asked the court to reopen the case that led to the collusive $1.7 billion weaponization fund settlement. Williams, who had overseen Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS demanding $10 billion for his tax returns being leaked during his own previous administration, had ordered the parties to explain how, exactly, this was a real lawsuit when Trump was on both sides.
Knowing that was impossible, Trump then dropped his fake lawsuit while simultaneously negotiating the fake settlement for the treason slush fund, a settlement that the parties made sure Judge Williams never saw before closing the case.
Williams’ order requires the plaintiffs—that’s Trump and the Trump Organization run by his large adult sons—to respond to the motion. Now, they get to explain how they are actually adverse and didn’t just collude on a fake lawsuit to get a fake settlement and then deceive the court when dismissing the case, all of which adds up to perpetrating fraud on the court.
It’s a neat trick that the order applies only to the plaintiffs—Trump and his family business as ostensible private parties. The DOJ can’t swoop in and save this and insist to the court that it is the prerogative of the president to set up slush funds for treason buddies, because that would just underscore how the whole thing was a sham from the start. Have fun with that, Trump and family.
Trump also doesn’t seem visibly bothered by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta’s order that requires the government to say something more than just that it is in the “public interest” to drop Jan. 6-related charges against Stewart Rhodes and some Oath Keeper pals. Can’t wait to find out how we are all benefiting from violent insurrectionists walking free, as the founders intended.
No, what Trump spent the weekend howling about was U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper’s decision saying his name had to come off the Kennedy Center and that he couldn’t take it over as another one of his horrible construction projects. According to his Truth Social screeds, Judge Cooper’s wife was somehow responsible for his loss here, and also the Kennedy Center is “rusted, rotted, and rat and bug-infested” and too unsafe to be inside unless Trump could close it down and add marble armrests.
Trump even sent ]feckless Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to do the Sunday shows to talk about the Kennedy Center, with Burgum saying that no, they are not going to take Trump’s name off the building despite the court order because they might appeal and also because “I think, you know, there’s controversy on both sides of this about that ruling.”
That is kind of how court cases work? Real court cases, we mean. Not ones where the president takes both sides just to give taxpayer money to his rabid followers.
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