A brief history of all the things so-called president Donald Trump has declared “so-called”
Last night, federal judge James Robart issued a ruling that blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travel or immigration into the United States for people from seven Muslim-majority countries. Various government entities—including the Department of Homeland Security—quickly complied with the ruling, allowing travelers and refugees with valid visas to enter the country, and beginning the work of reinstating visas for those who had theirs revoked during the travel ban’s implementation.
Unsurprisingly, the White House blasted Robart—a George W. Bush appointee who presides in Seattle—for his decision, while Trump himself took to his favorite bully pulpit—i.e., Twitter—to question Robart’s judicial validity.
Trump’s suggestion that Robart wasn’t a “real” judge, just because he tried to saddle the White House with some unwanted checks and balances, provoked predictable outrage on social media. (Both “so-called president,” and the more nostalgic “My So-Called Judge” are doing well on Twitter right now.) But this isn’t the first, or even the dozenth, time Trump has so called something so-called; a cursory search of his Twitter suggests it’s his go-to tactic for when his private reality and the one the rest of us live in disagree.
Some of the topics Trump has so-called away in his last four years on Twitter:
Carbon footprints, green energy, and climate change.
The Commission On Presidential Debates.
The popular vote.
“Leaders,” with the scare quotes doubling-down on the implied illegitimacy.
“Journalists.” (Ditto.)
A-list celebrities.
The concept of time itself.
So Judge Robart can probably consider himself in pretty good company. (At least he didn’t get declared a so-called “judge,” instead.)