In “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century,” Yale historian Timothy Snyder warns us that unless we defend our institutions “from the beginning,” they will fall one after the other. And the courts are among the institutions that he singles out as being in jeopardy.

“It is our institutions that help us to preserve decency. They need our help as well,” he writes. “Do not speak of ‘our institutions’ unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf.”

Our judges and courts are under constant attack by President Donald Trump, and it is getting worse as the courts reject his most outrageous demands. In February, Trump flipped out when the United States Supreme Court ruled against his unilaterally imposed tariffs.

Trump called two justices who ruled against him — his appointees Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch — “an embarrassment to their families” and “a disgrace to our nation” and accused them of lacking “the courage to do what’s right for the country.”

At other times, Trump has called judges and the courts that have not taken a knee before him “monsters who want our country to go to hell” and a “laughingstock,” accusing one judge of bias because of his “Mexican heritage.” This is the gutter talk that passes as presidential rhetoric these days.

At a recent meeting of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Trump said, “The time has also come for Republicans to pass a tough new crime bill that … cracks down on rogue judges. We got rogue judges that are criminals. They are criminals, what they do to our country. The decisions that they hand down and hurt our country.”

No one should have any doubts as to what Trump is up to with the constant attacks he directs at judges and the courts, because he telegraphs his punches all the time. Before a 2016 interview with Leslie Stahl, he showed his hand when she asked him why he constantly attacked the press.

“You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you.” He is taking the same approach with the courts.

The courts saved us from Trump’s big lie that the 2020 election was fixed. He said it was fixed because he lost to Joe Biden. After the election, Trump lost 61 of the 62 lawsuits that were filed on his behalf or in support of his bizarre arguments. A number of the judges who ruled against him had been appointed by him. The courts saved the republic that time.

Retired conservative Fourth Circuit Court federal Judge J. Michael Luttig has defended the judicial branch, saying that Trump “has provoked a constitutional crisis with his stunning frontal assault on the third branch of government.”

With polls indicating that the upcoming midterm elections could break Trump’s hold on the federal government, he has stepped up his attacks on our electoral process. He is threatening to take action that would allow him, under the guise of a national emergency, to steal the elections that he may need to win to stay in power.

Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge, responded to Trump’s characterization of those judges who rule against him as “rogue judges.” In March, she told The New York Times, “The distance between what he’s trying to do and what is lawful is so great, and the language of these opinions reflects that.”

“So, it’s not that there are rogue judges. There is a rogue president.”