It has become increasingly clear in the past few weeks that Donald Trump sees the judicial system as the final frontier in gaining full control of the U.S. government without much pushback. In many ways, the walls are already closing in on the Trump administration, but they just secured a major win after ending a months-long confrontation with federal judges in New Jersey over the top federal prosecutor.
Trump has recently been facing criticism for suggesting that some Supreme Court justices should show more gratitude to him in their rulings because he was the one who nominated them. So it comes as no surprise that his Department of Justice wanted the top prosecutor to be someone aligned with MAGA values too.
Initially, the Trump administration hired Alina Habba as U.S. Attorney. Habba was a former personal lawyer of Trump’s during his many lawsuits in the past — and while there are other former Trump lawyers who eventually started to criticize him, Habba has shown loyalty, so the administration wanted her to stay put in that position.
The only problem was that Habba was only an interim hire. She was supposed to handle the post for 120 days because she had no prior prosecution experience. Regardless, the Trump administration tried to keep Habba as U.S. Attorney unlawfully. But the federal court struck down that appointment, and the administration had to go back to the drawing board and restrategize.
That’s where Robert Frazer comes in. Unlike Habba, Frazer is a career federal prosecutor and, according to Reuters, he has Habba’s blessing too. She said he is “in line with President Trump’s agenda.” And while Trump has frequently referred to unfavorable rulings as the result of “rogue” or “activist” judges, the courts ultimately yielded and named Frazer to take over the job in agreement with the president.
Previously, the courts tried to deal with this issue internally. When it came time to replace Habba, the court suggested a nominee with vast experience, so the Trump administration fired that attorney. The courts then appointed two other U.S. Attorneys, and Trump fired them too. The administration’s reasoning for these actions was that the courts had political motivations.
Trump has never gotten along with the U.S. judicial system — even going back to his real estate family business in the 1970s. Back then, his issue was trying to prevent Black tenants from renting his family’s properties, either by outright denial or by hiking prices. He has since graduated to attempts at overturning elections and trying to tariff every country on the planet without Congressional approval in his older age. Both, obviously, illegal acts.
Federal judges in New Jersey have since accused Trump of trying to circumvent the United States Constitution by upending the protections governing the appointment of federal officials. Trump believes the country should march to his beat, and that’s well and good because he was democratically elected to lead in the ways he sees fit.
But thankfully, the federal courts keep reminding him — win or lose — he can only do that constitutionally. Nothing else will be acceptable.
