Sit down, you may be shocked.
A federal judge blocked a Trump administration plan on Monday. I know, I know, it’s a lot to take in.
I kid, of course, because seemingly not a day has gone by since January 21, 2025, that a jurist hasn’t issued a temporary restraining order or otherwise nuked part of the president’s agenda. Now, it’s apparently illegal to move the FBI headquarters where Trump wants it because former Saint President Biden had planned for it to go elsewhere.
The Biden-era plan was to move the HQ to Greenbelt, Maryland, but Team Trump wanted it to remain in Washington, D.C., and be housed in the Ronald Reagan building, which had formerly housed the U.S. Agency for International Development. That scandal-plagued agency has now been folded into the State Department.
You can’t do that, the judge pronounced:
U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang, an appointee of President Barack Obama, ruled that the Trump administration illegally tossed a plan that had been previously approved to build a new facility in Maryland, the Associated Press reported.
The battle over a new location to house the FBI headquarters has been going on for years. The Biden administration picked a site in Greenbelt, Maryland, but Trump appointees tried to reverse that decision last year in favor of repurposing the Ronald Reagan Building, which is a few blocks from the current location of the FBI headquarters.
Why can’t they move it to the Reagan building? Because the state of Maryland had their eyes on all that construction money and economic benefits, and they weren’t going to go down with a fight. In their suit against the Bureau and FBI Director Kash Patel, they alleged that the administration had attempted to "unlawfully sabotage" the plan and had illegally diverted $323 million in congressionally authorized funding.
Chuang agreed, and declared the Trump plan "arbitrary and capricious and not in accordance with law."
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The FBI was not pleased and accused the court of politicizing the case instead of ruling on the merits.
This is not the first time courts have tried to undermine the administration in its goal to make government more cost-effective for American taxpayers. The court has chosen to impermissibly intervene for political reasons. This FBI is mission-focused and will continue the best… pic.twitter.com/CDHO85cLCD
— FBI Rapid Response (@FBI_Response) August 18, 2026
This is not the first time courts have tried to undermine the administration in its goal to make government more cost-effective for American taxpayers. The court has chosen to impermissibly intervene for political reasons. This FBI is mission-focused and will continue the best course of action to meet the needs of law enforcement. Sycophants seeking to undermine the work of this FBI, which has led the largest reduction in crime in American history under President Trump, will not deter us.
As I’ve written previously, some of the more than 850 cases filed against the Trump administration may have merit, but when the district courts seemingly vote time and time again against the president’s agenda, one can’t help but feel that an activist judiciary is trying to run the country the way it sees fit.
The administration will, for now at least, remain in the J. Edgar Hoover Building in D.C., which was built in 1975 and has experienced structural problems and security issues for years. The FBI will almost certainly appeal the ruling, but this long ordeal to modernize the nation’s premier federal investigative agency will drag on for who knows how long.
Tune in tomorrow to see if we get any new injunctions or court strike-downs. Maybe we'll even get a Judge James Boasberg sighting.
Editor's Note: Unelected federal judges are obstructing President Trump's agenda and ignoring the will of the people.
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