Trump Says He Regrets Appointing Gorsuch Kavanaugh and Barrett
By Sandra Rhodes (/journals/sandra-rhodes)
President Donald Trump is not a fan of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — all three of his Supreme Court justice appointees.
He said they have voted against him “too often.”
Trump’s disappointment was expressed interview with TIME at the that was published in full Thursday.
The president was asked whether he regretted appointing the three to the nation’s highest court.
“Yeah. Yeah. What can I do? I put them in. They voted against me too often,” Trump said. “I gave them the position of a lifetime, and they vote against me often. They vote for me, too.”
Trump said the Court’s three Democratic-appointed justices, have greater bias to the presidents and party that put them there.
“The Democrats stick like glue — those three, they virtually never vary,” he said. “You can come up with the worst thing in the world and they’ll vote as a group. And while I don’t like it, there’s something I admire about it: there’s loyalty.”
“They have loyalty to Barack Hussein Obama. They have loyalty to [Joe] Biden, even though Biden doesn’t even know who the hell they are, Trump continued. “He wouldn’t know. He doesn’t even know what the Supreme Court is. And me, I gave them the chance of a lifetime, and it’s unfortunate what they did.”
In February, the Court ruled 6-3 the International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not give Trump authority to impose his sweeping emergency tariffs. Gorsuch and Barrett joined the controlling opinion; Kavanaugh dissented.
Another setback for Trump happened in June when it rejected his attempt to restrict birthright citizenship. Barrett joined Chief Justice John Roberts and the liberal justices in finding Trump’s order unconstitutional. Kavanaugh joined a separate majority concluding it violated federal law. Gorsuch dissented.
The justices also blocked Trump’s effort to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook in a 5-4 decision.
Trump pointed out the tariff and citizenship decisions, calling the former “disastrous for the country.”
“It’s unfortunate what they did — not to me, to our country. Birthright citizenship. It’s becoming a major industry now. People are making millions and millions of dollars, and we’re losing trillions of dollars. And it’s become a corrupt business, all because of the Supreme Court decision,” he said.
“That decision was for the babies of slaves. Look at where it was—look at where it was approved. It wasn’t for Chinese people, wealthy or unwealthy, coming, you know, pouring into our country. And this tariff decision again, all they had to do was a little clause saying any money paid does not have to be paid back…would have saved $400 billion. They chose not to save that,” the president continued.
When asked if loyalty was something he wanted from his own Supreme Court selections, Trump first replied, “I do like loyalty, yeah.”
Asked specifically on whether he expected loyalty from justices, however, Trump answered, “No, I don’t want loyalty. I want good decisions.”
“The tariff decision was disastrous for the country. I want good decisions for the country,” he said. “They’ve treated me – look, I put these people in. It is what it is. Very disappointing, very disappointing for the country – their decisions. And the country knows it. Very disappointing for the country. The other ones – they stick like glue. It’s unbelievable, right?”