TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — President Donald Trump has moved to keep his former defense attorney Alina Habba on the job as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, even though a panel of judges refused to extend her tenure.

President Trump’s war with the judiciary escalated Tuesday with the firing of an attorney named by federal judges to replace Alina Habba, the loyalist he tapped as New Jersey’s top federal prosecutor.

Like much of what Trump touches, the fight over Alina Habba mingles authoritarianism with goonish incompetence.

Desiree Lee Grace was appointed by New Jersey district court judges to replace Trump’s former personal attorney, Alina Habba, who reportedly lacks the votes to be formally confirmed by the Senate as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey.

Mere hours after federal judges named Alina Habba's replacement as New Jersey's top federal prosecutor on Tuesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that she was firing the pick.

Federal judges appointed Desiree Leigh Grace to replace Habba before U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi fired her.

Trump appears to be using the same playbook he did with a New York federal prosecutor appointee to extend Habba’s term as U.S. attorney for New Jersey — a position that usually requires Senate confirmation.

The Trump administration opened a new front in its war with the courts this week — and fired a veteran federal prosecutor in the process — in a dramatic tussle over the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office.