Trump’s campaign to vilify judges follows Authoritarian Playbook 101: by mocking and demeaning the judiciary, the autocratic leader seeks to diminish the public’s trust and respect for judges, making it easier for the leader to put himself high above the judiciary and assert that judicial rulings are illegitimate, and it’s fine for him to defy them. In recent months, the Trump administration has repeatedly defied judicial rulings, most notably violating 52 court orders in New Jersey and nearly 100 in Minnesota, according to a judge.