It’s Finally Happening: Trump and Musk Deliver Huge Defeat to Activist Judge as Tide Begins to Turn

If federal judges at any level can prevent President Donald Trump from exercising his constitutional powers, then we have problems.

One wonders, though, if even well-informed and well-meaning Americans understand how deep those problems run. In short, if judges have that authority, then we have no reason to vote. Nor do we have any reason to pay attention to public affairs. Our republic, already mostly subsumed by deep state tyranny, would degenerate into a total farce.

Fortunately, Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X and head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, completed a successful rearguard action on Tuesday when a federal appeals court temporarily smacked down an overbearing district judge.

Last week, according to The Harvard Crimson, federal judge Theodore D. Chuang, part of Harvard University’s Board of Overseers — a notable fact that highlights the incestuous nature of the American ruling class — ruled that Musk likely acted in an unconstitutional manner when he spearheaded Trump’s initiative to shut down the United States Agency for International Development in February.

Chuang serves as a U.S. District Judge for the District of Maryland. Former President Barack Obama nominated him for the federal bench in 2013.

Tuesday on X, independent journalist Nick Sortor posted a screen shot of the appeals court’s decision to overturn Chuang.

“On the defendants’ motion for an administrative stay,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit wrote, “the court orders that the district court’s preliminary injunction dated March 18, 2025, as clarified by its order dated March 20, 2025, be stayed and hereby is stayed until the close of business of Thursday, March 27, 2025.”

Meanwhile, Sortor noted that “an expanded ruling could come later this week.”

🚨 #BREAKING: President Trump, Elon Musk, DOGE just scored a win over the activist judge who tried to force them to reinstate USAID

The 4th Circuit just halted Activist Judge Chuang’s order, which required DOGE’s access to much of USAID be suspended.

An expanded ruling could… pic.twitter.com/BPDpRXsrbF

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) March 25, 2025

The “defendants,” in this case also the appellants, referred to Musk and DOGE.

In short, while a two-day stay in anticipation of a possible “expanded ruling” hardly qualifies as a permanent victory, it does constitute an important step in the right direction.

For one thing, USAID must never return in its prior form. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the agency “sinister,” and for good reasons.

Moreover, in a broader sense, Tuesday’s temporary stay slowed the momentum of a judicial coup against Trump.

Earlier this month, for instance, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg — another Obama appointee — usurped presidential authority by presuming to order the return of two deportation flights filled with Venezuelan Tren de Aragua illegal alien gang members, though Trump administration officials made sure that the flights left U.S. airspace anyway.

Of course, we want illegal alien criminals deported, and we want USAID shuttered.

The real issue, however, involves something much deeper than our policy preferences. After all the courtroom wrangling, all the orders and appeals, the fact remains that we voted for those things.

Trump pledged deportations and the destruction of the deep state — both of which fall well within his constitutional authority.

Just as the president can neither diminish Congress’ authority under the Constitution nor order the Supreme Court to rule as he prefers, neither can those branches infringe upon the presidency

The Constitution has very specific remedies for extreme cases of abuse. And the only abuse in this case has come from the courts. Free and sovereign people who elect their president cannot stand for this kind of behavior from judges.

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