This NBC story refers to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon as a “Trump-appointed” judge. The headline, however, calls her simply a “Trump judge.” Was the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg “a Clinton judge”? Is Chief Justice Roberts a “George W. Bush judge”?
Federal judges are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The oath of office that each of them takes reads as follows:
“I, ___ ___, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as ___ under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God.” https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/28/453
As you can see, their oath of office makes no mention of the particular president who appointed them. Once they are confirmed, they have no legal or moral obligation to favor the president who appointed them.
It seems to me that it is both unjustifiably biased and unprofessional for a news organization such as NBC to call a judge a “Trump judge.” And I imagine that the intended purpose of using that term is to discredit the judge or at least to cast doubt on the validity of that judge’s rulings. Shame on NBC.