White House says judges 'abuse their power' to block Trump's orders

The White House has accused US judges of "abusing their power" to block President Donald Trump's executive actions, which have been challenged in dozens of court cases.

"The real constitutional crisis is taking place within our judicial branch, where district court judges in liberal districts across the country are abusing their power to unilaterally block President Trump's basic executive authority," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday.

The decisions have come from judges nominated by both Republican and Democratic presidents, including Trump himself during his first term.

But Leavitt accused the judges of "acting as judicial activists rather than honest arbiters of the law."

She asserted that "77 million Americans voted to elect this president, and each injunction is an abuse of the rule of law and an attempt to thwart the will of the people."

'Judicial impeachments'

Trump and his allies also continued to criticise the judges, with billionaire ally Elon Musk calling for "an immediate wave of judicial impeachments."

"There needs to be an immediate wave of judicial impeachments, not just one," Musk said on X.

In a social media post earlier on Wednesday, Trump repeated Musk's unsubstantiated claims that his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had found "massive" amounts of fraud and waste.

Yet "even knowing this, a highly political, activist Judge wants us to immediately make payment, anyway," Trump said.

His post appeared to be a reference to Providence, Rhode Island-based US District Judge John McConnell, who on Monday found Trump's administration had defied an earlier ruling he issued at the behest of Democratic-led states by continuing to withhold billions of dollars in frozen federal grant funding.

In his first three weeks in office, Trump has issued a flurry of executive orders aimed at slashing federal spending, appointing Musk to lead efforts that critics have widely denounced as unconstitutional.

His plans, which have effectively shuttered some federal agencies and sent thousands of staff home, have sparked legal battles across the country.

Multiple lawsuits seek to halt what opponents characterise as an illegal power grab.