WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump faulted the Justice Department on Wednesday for its handling of a case involving the young immigrants known as "Dreamers," citing the punditry of Fox Business News analyst Lou Dobbs.
"Department of Justice should have urged the Supreme Court to at least hear the Drivers License case on illegal immigrants in Arizona," Trump tweeted. "I agree with @LouDobbs. Should have sought review."
Dobbs, long an anti-immigration hardliner, is not a lawyer.
Trump's latest slam against a department staffed at the top by his appointees was one of several he fired off Wednesday morning, including two others aimed at special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, a Justice Department appointee probing Russia's election interference and actions by Trump and his associates. He deleted one tweet that was riddled with errors and rewrote it, still misspelling the word "counsel."
The president often watches Fox News and tweets about its content during the morning. With a snowstorm shutting down much of Washington and White House events canceled, the president apparently has more time to ruminate on the news.
His public criticism of the Justice Department, rare for most presidents, is common for Trump. He has frequently criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia probe, and this week for the first time began assailing Mueller by name.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear Arizona's challenge to a ruling that required it to continue to issue drivers licenses to hundreds of thousands of immigrants given legal protections under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA.
Trump had ordered the program halted after March 5. The high court last month allowed a partial continuation of DACA, denying a request from the Justice Department that it settle the matter quickly and skip over lower-court reviews of the issue. The Justice Department asked the court not to hear Arizona's separate challenge while the larger DACA case works its way through the courts.
