Chief Justice rebukes Trump after he calls for US judge's impeachment | The Excerpt
On Wednesday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Chief Justice John Roberts rebuked President Donald Trump after Trump called for a U.S. judge's impeachment. Plus, the Trump administration withholds details from a judge about deportation flights for Venezuelans. Paste BN Senior Reporter Jessica Guynn discusses how President Trump and Elon Musk have made federal employees America's punching bag. A Tuesday call between President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin ended with a limited agreement for Russia and Ukraine to stop attacks on energy infrastructure. A federal judge has blocked DOGE from firing any more USAID employees. Plus, a stand-off between President Donald Trump's administration and an independent nonprofit comes to a head. A pair of NASA astronauts return to Earth after their longer than expected stay in orbit. Watch or listen to our special episode with them and other astronauts on the International Space Station.
Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@usatoday.com.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Wednesday, March 19th, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, the Supreme Court Chief Justice calls out Trump's push for the impeachment of a federal judge, plus how federal employees have been made to be America's punching back, and a pair of astronauts are back on Earth.
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Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts rebuked President Donald Trump's call for the impeachment of a federal judge. The rare public statement from Roberts followed Trump's call yesterday for the impeachment of a judge who tried to stop the Republican administration from deporting hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members by invoking the Alien Enemies Act, the 1798 law last used during World War Two.
Meanwhile, Department of Justice lawyers yesterday refused to say how many Venezuelans were deported under the act despite a federal judge's demand for the information as part of an inquiry into whether President Trump's administration defied his orders. Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of a transnational Venezuelan gang that he designated on his first day in office as a foreign terrorist organization. The law says a president can invoke the act during a declared war with a foreign nation or government, or when any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the United States.
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The Trump administration has moved to reinstate nearly 25,000 recently fired federal workers following a pair of orders from federal judges last week that found the terminations pushed by Trump were illegal. The judge's orders came as Trump and Elon Musk have leaned in on making federal employees America's favorite punching bag. I spoke with Paste BN Senior Reporter Jessica Guynn for more. Jessica, how are you today? Thanks for hopping on.
Jessica Guynn:
I'm doing great, Taylor. Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So Jessica, President Donald Trump, it's no secret he's been off to a fast start when it comes to slashing the federal government. In the process, he has been sharply critical of federal employees. Why is that? What have we heard?
Jessica Guynn:
Well, President Trump has spent the first weeks of his second term rallying public support for slashing the federal government and defunding Democrat-backed initiatives such as shutting down the United States Agency for International Development and making deep cuts at the Department of Education. And being critical of federal employees is helping him marshal that support. Trump and Musk have said the mass firings are necessary to battle an administrative state that is staffed by, quote, unquote, "unelected bureaucrats," who are disloyal to President Trump and to the American people. And we've heard from many readers who agree with Trump and who support federal employees losing their jobs. So we wanted to explore why people have such ambivalence, if not animosity towards civil servants.
Taylor Wilson:
Right. Well, let's go back. I mean, how did federal workers really become the nation's favorite punching bag even before this era? Is this unique in this moment, Jessica, or part of American history?
Jessica Guynn:
Well, from the conservative grassroots Tea Party to the MAGA movement, Americans famously don't love the power that a big decentralized government has over their daily lives. And we saw anger over federal overreach swell during the COVID--19 pandemic with mask requirements and vaccine mandates and how those clashed with individual liberties. And in addition to that anti-government sentiment, Americans resent the perks, the job security, other civil service protections that federal employees enjoy, but people in the private sector largely do not.
And it turns out that politicians have a long history of stoking those resentments for their own political ends. In Trump's case, people I spoke with said that describing federal workers as lazy, unproductive, disloyal helps him pursue key objectives that are important to him, such as rooting out ideological opposition to his agenda and undercutting public employee unions, which are a key base of political support for Democrats.
Taylor Wilson:
As for this moment, Jessica, and these laid off workers, I'm sure there's resentment, but how are they really reacting in this moment?
Jessica Guynn:
Well, yes, federal workers have their own resentments about this, and they object to the comments from the White House disparaging their contributions. They say they took pay cuts to serve the American people, they perform vital functions that Americans cannot do without. And they say they're not partisan actors. They don't write policies, they just carry them out and those change from administration to administration.
One of the workers who lost his job as a wildlife biologist for the Los Padres National Forest in California was invited to sit in the gallery at the president's joint address to Congress. And he was several rows in front of Musk and he had taken exception with Musk saying that federal workers are basically just waste. So afterward he confronted Musk and he asked him, "Am I waste?" And Musk asked what he did. And after explaining what he did for the Forest Service, Musk assured him that he was. And as one other former federal employee told us, people think we're eating bonbons and looking up used cars on the internet and he says nothing could be further from the truth.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, the American people overwhelmingly support the administration's government cuts, at least according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Do Americans actually back these cuts? What does polling maybe tell us on this?
Jessica Guynn:
Well, it's unclear, but there does seem to be mounting concern. One recent CNN poll found that 55% of Americans say they fear Trump's cuts to federal programs will negatively impact the economy. And just over half said that they will negatively impact their own families or local communities. And we're seeing some angry reactions at town halls in Republican districts. What people we interviewed told us is that if these mass layoffs force Americans to wait longer at airport security or for IRS refund checks, we could see a backlash.
Taylor Wilson:
Jessica Guynn is a senior reporter with Paste BN. Thank you, Jessica.
Jessica Guynn:
Thanks so much for having me, Taylor.
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Taylor Wilson:
A Tuesday call between President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin ended with a limited agreement for Russia and Ukraine to stop attacks on energy infrastructure, but it stopped short of a US proposal for a temporary truce. After Russia and Ukraine agreed to stop hitting each other's power plants and electric grids, negotiators would move on to a potential halt in fighting on the Black Sea and then do a full ceasefire and peace agreement in the three-year-old war. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.
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A federal judge has blocked Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from firing any more USAID employees or terminating USAID contracts, writing that efforts to speedily shut down the aid organization were likely unconstitutional. Meanwhile, a standoff between the Trump administration and an independent nonprofit came to a head this week in a dramatic public scene involving police.
Since Friday, members of Trump and Musk's Department of Government Efficiency had sought and been repeatedly denied access to the Institute of Peace Office in Washington. After arriving again unannounced on Monday, the staffers were able to enter with assistance from Metropolitan Police Department officers. The group is tasked with brokering peace and reducing foreign conflict and is independent of the executive branch, but receives annual funding from Congress. Since President Trump took office, Elon Musk and DOGE have been having a profound effect on the federal government affecting change at both a speed and a scale never before seen.
But just who is Elon Musk anyway? Stay tuned to this feed at 4:00 PM Eastern time when you can hear my conversation with journalist and podcast host, Kara Swisher, who has been covering Musk for over three decades. And I know, to our listeners, this episode was originally scheduled to air last Thursday. We apologize for the delay.
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Well, they're finally back. NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams returned to Earth yesterday after more than 280 days in space. Months ago, Wilmore and Williams watched as the Starliner spacecraft they rode to orbit undocked from the International Space Station and then left them behind. While the troubled test capsule manufactured by Boeing for NASA missions returned to Earth empty-handed, its crew had no choice but to remain for a few more months at the orbital laboratory.
My colleague, Dana Taylor had the privilege to talk to Suni and Butch just a few weeks ago in a remarkable interview while they were still on the space station. We're sharing the YouTube link as well as the podcast link for you in today's show notes. And I suggest you give it a watch if you have a chance.
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And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. And if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from Paste BN.