MAGA media pushes for judicial showdown over Venezuelan deportations
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Top MAGA-world figures are leaning into a fight with the judicial system over the constitutionality of President Trump's deportations last weekend of alleged Venezuelan gang members.
Why it matters: A federal district judge ruled that flights carrying the migrants to El Salvador had to be turned around — an order the White House says had "no lawful basis."
- But MAGA podcasts were adamant on Monday that the judge was in the wrong, indicating an appetite among Trump's base to lean into what could turn into a major showdown with the judicial branch.
Zoom in: "I think there ought to be a much broader swath of impeachments," Steve Bannon said on his show, talking about federal judges. "We have to fight fire with fire. … They want to slow the Trump administration's flood the zone."
- "Immigration under national security concerns is obviously an area where number one, the judiciary, and particularly these district judges, have gone completely overboard," Jack Posobiec added on his own show.
- The Article III Project, a "brass knuckles" conservative legal group, launched a petition to build support for Congress to impeach the judge who ordered a halt to the deportations.
Catch up quick: The Trump administration has said it refused to turn around two planeloads of alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang after Judge James Boasberg ordered them back because the flights were already over international waters.
- The migrants are now in an infamous El Salvadoran prison.
The big picture: Tensions were already building among Trump and his allies over federal court rulings halting policies such as mass firings and ending birthright citizenship.
- But now, MAGA influencers are betting that the political winds are blowing in their favor when it comes down to removing supposed gang members from the country.
"Essentially, it puts the Democrats in a place where they have to say, 'well, we're defending criminal gang members,'" Andrew Kolvet, the executive producer of "The Charlie Kirk Show," said on the podcast Monday.
- The story is "going to be huge," Bannon texted Axios.
