President Trump said Thursday he respects Chief Justice John Roberts amid a dispute over the president’s rhetoric against a federal judge, though Trump maintained he was right to criticize the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“I know that Chief Justice Roberts, John Roberts, has been speaking a little bit about it and I think — I have a lot of respect for him, I like him and I respect him. But I think we have to use some common sense,” Trump told reporters in Florida.
“The 9th Circuit — everybody knows it, it’s totally out of control,” he added, referring to the San Francisco–based court that has frequently ruled against the administration.
Trump has repeatedly rejected criticism from Roberts over the past 24 hours after the top justice rebuked the president’s rhetoric about a federal judge in California.
The president blasted the judge’s ruling against his administration’s asylum policy on Tuesday, referring to him as “an Obama judge.” The judge was appointed to the federal bench by then-President Obama in 2012.{mosads}
“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” Roberts responded in a statement released Wednesday. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.”
Trump railed against U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar after he ruled against the White House’s policy prohibiting immigrants who entered the country illegally from requesting asylum. Appeals from Tigar’s court go to the 9th Circuit for a hearing.
“Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have ‘Obama judges,’ and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country,” the president tweeted Wednesday afternoon.
“It would be great if the 9th Circuit was indeed an ‘independent judiciary,’” Trump added.
The 9th Circuit has overturned several of the administration’s immigration and national security initiatives, including two versions of the president’s travel ban proposal.
“You cannot win, if you’re us, a case in the 9th Circuit, and I think it’s a disgrace when people file — every case gets filed in the 9th Circuit,” the president told reporters Tuesday.
Trump has long ripped judges he views as not ruling in his favor. He referred to the federal judge who initially halted the travel ban as a “so-called judge” and suggested in 2016 that a judge overseeing a lawsuit against Trump University may be biased against then-candidate Trump because his Mexican heritage would clash with Trump’s proposal of a border wall.