A pair of House Republicans are preparing to introduce articles of impeachment against at least two federal judges, both of whom have ruled against President Trump in his attempts to freeze disbursement of grant and aid money and the Department of Government Efficiency’s access to Treasury Department payment systems. Mr. Trump himself has said he would like someone to “look” at the judges who have placed temporary holds on his executive orders. 

With Congress grinding away at Mr. Trump’s legislative agenda, he has mostly been consigned to issuing his executive actions aimed at cutting what he sees as the government’s wasteful spending, including foreign aid sent through the U.S. Agency for International Development and funds appropriated by legislation from the Biden administration. The judiciary, however, has largely sided with states, non-governmental organizations, and unions in their fights to release those funds and protect federal jobs, at least for now. 

Only one executive order has thus far been judged on the merits — Mr. Trump’s buyout offer for federal employees who choose to retire early and get paid through September. The other executive actions that have been blocked so far have only been halted on a temporary basis as jurists consider further arguments in the cases. 

Still, Republicans in the House say that even a temporary blockage of Mr. Trump’s executive functions represent political bias among those judges. They say that it is time for the judges to face impeachment on the House floor. 

“I’m one of them,” Congressman Eli Crane wrote in response to an X account that had posted about Republicans pushing for the impeachments. “Activist judges are out of control.”

Mr. Crane later clarified that he would be introducing his articles against Judge Paul Engelmayer, who blocked Elon Musk and his young DOGE staffers from accessing the Treasury Department’s payment system for fear that Americans’ personal information could fall into the wrong hands. Judge Engelmayer has only placed a temporary pause on Mr. Musk’s access to the payments systems, and he is still considering what to do after hearing arguments on Friday. 

“I’m drafting articles of impeachment for US District Judge Paul Engelmayer. Partisan judges abusing their positions is a threat to democracy,” Mr. Crane wrote on X. “This is obviously judicial overreach. Judge Engelmayer is attempting to stop White House employees from accessing the very systems they oversee. Where in the constitution does it say a President and his team cannot root out obvious waste, fraud and abuse?”

The first lawmaker to announce the plans to introduce articles of impeachment was Congressman Andrew Clyde, who said that a Rhode Island federal judge who blocked Mr. Trump’s federal funding freeze was a “partisan activist.”

“I’m drafting articles of impeachment for U.S. District Judge John McConnell Jr. He’s a partisan activist weaponizing our judicial system to stop President Trump’s funding freeze on woke and wasteful government spending,” Mr. Clyde wrote. “We must end this abusive overreach. Stay tuned.”

The president himself has mused about judges facing some kind of punishment or investigation for their decision to block his executive orders. 

“It seems hard to believe that judges want to try and stop us from looking for corruption,” Mr. Trump said from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval office last week. “We wanna weed out the corruption and it seems hard to believe that a judge could say: ‘We don’t want you to do that.’”

“So, maybe we have to look at the judges,” Mr. Trump added. “I think it’s a very serious violation.”