"Now this important project can go forward!” President Donald Trump wrote online. | Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images Trump welcomes border ruling from judge he attacked

President Donald Trump on Tuesday celebrated a “big legal win” delivered by a federal judge against whom he once leveled racial criticism.

Earlier Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel rejected lawsuits brought by environmentalists and the state of California related to the Trump administration’s efforts to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.


“Big legal win today. U.S. judge sided with the Trump Administration and rejected the attempt to stop the government from building a great Border Wall on the Southern Border. Now this important project can go forward!” the president wrote online.

Trump made no mention in his Tuesday tweet of his previous feud with Curiel, which dates back to the summer of 2016, when the then-GOP candidate characterized the federal judge as a “Mexican” whose heritage meant he could not capably oversee a lawsuit against Trump, even though Curiel was born in Indiana.

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The president’s criticism of Curiel prompted significant backlash at the time, with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) labeling Trump’s remark as the “textbook definition of a racist comment."

