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After his Supreme Court made sure that an authoritarian president like Donald Trump would largely be shielded from legal consequences for “official acts,” Chief Justice John Roberts seems to have some second thoughts now that the pseudo-king he helped create is attacking judges.

Just hours after Trump published an unhinged rant in which he called for the impeachment of judges who are trying to uphold the rule of law while his administration is doing its best to turn the US into a right-wing authoritarian state, Roberts issued a rare rebuke.

“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”

Of course, it’s not just Trump calling for the impeachment of justices but also his benefactor Elon Musk and many other Republicans.

Emboldened by having secured total control of Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court, they are now trying to completely remake the United States, and with feckless Democrats putting up token opposition and writing strongly worded letters, an independent judiciary is now the only thing that can rein in a president drunk on power.

At least for as long as Trump doesn’t just ignore their rulings, which seems to have been precisely what happened after US District Court Judge James Boasberg on Saturday issued a temporary restraining order that blocked the president from invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador.

In a clear violation of that order, the deportation flights continued on to El Salvador, and Boasberg has since held a hearing to weigh whether to hold the administration in contempt of court.

The thought of being subject to any kind of accountability set off Trump.

“This Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected President,” Trump stated in a social media post.

He added that “[t]his judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!”

Of course, impeachment is probably the least of these judge’s worries.

Spurred on by the GOP’s rhetoric, they are increasingly facing threats, and some judges have needed additional security after ruling against Trump.

But at least they can rely on Democrats issuing strongly worded statements like this one.

“Trump’s attack comes on the heels of a similar, shameless effort by House Republicans, who — not merely content to surrender their congressional authority to Donald Trump — are now actively working to dismantle the judicial branch of government which stands between Trump and Elon Musk, and their dream of unlimited tyrannical power over the people,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.

Every part of this was predictable, which is why Roberts’s lamentations ring a bit hollow.

The chief justice should have known how all of this would play out (and he probably did), and he has played a major role in why we have arrived at this moment.

The only question that remains is what he will do once all of these cases arrive before the Supreme Court.

Chances are that the court’s conservative supermajority will side with Trump more often than not, because having a Constitution is nice, but having a country as dreamt up by the Heritage Foundation is even nicer.

In his Navigating the Insanity columns, Klaus Marre provides the kind of hard-hitting, thought-provoking, and often humorous analysis you won’t find anywhere else.