President Donald Trump said he regrets appointing all three of his Supreme Court justices, pointing to rulings on birthright citizenship and emergency tariffs while saying he wants “good decisions” rather than personal loyalty from the Court.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
President Donald Trump said he regrets nominating Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, expressing frustration that all three have sided against his administration in major cases despite being appointed during his first term.
Asked directly during a wide-ranging Time magazine interview whether he regretted selecting the three justices, Trump replied, “Yeah. Yeah. What can I do? I put them in.”
“They voted against me too often,” Trump continued. “I gave them the position of a lifetime, and they vote against me often. They vote for me too.”
Trump appointed Gorsuch in 2017, Kavanaugh in 2018 and Barrett in 2020, giving Republican-appointed justices a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court. Although the three have joined numerous conservative rulings, Trump has become increasingly critical when they have rejected legal positions advanced by his administration.
He contrasted his appointees with the Court’s Democratic-appointed justices, whom he characterized as more unified in their voting. Trump said he admired what he viewed as their loyalty to the presidents who appointed them, adding, “They have loyalty to Biden, even though Biden doesn’t even know who the hell they are.”
“He wouldn’t know. He doesn’t even know what the Supreme Court is,” Trump said. Referring again to his own selections, he added, “I gave them the chance of a lifetime, and it’s unfortunate what they did.”
When Time asked whether he expected loyalty from Supreme Court nominees, Trump initially replied, “I do like loyalty, yeah.” Pressed on whether that was what he wanted from justices, however, Trump clarified: “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.”
Two rulings featured prominently in Trump’s criticism. In June, the Supreme Court rejected his effort to restrict birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to parents who are in the country illegally or only temporarily.
In Trump v. Barbara, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson formed the majority holding that Trump’s executive order violated the Fourteenth Amendment. Kavanaugh agreed that the order could not take effect because it conflicted with existing federal citizenship law, although he disagreed with the majority’s constitutional conclusion. Gorsuch dissented from the judgment.
Trump argued that the decision expanded what he described as an industry built around obtaining citizenship through births in the United States. “People are making millions and millions of dollars, and we’re losing trillions of dollars,” he said. “And it’s become a corrupt business, all because of the Supreme Court decision. That decision was for the babies of slaves.”
His characterization reflects his interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause. The Court’s majority relied on the constitutional text and longstanding birthright-citizenship precedent in concluding that the administration’s proposed exceptions could not be imposed through the executive order.
Trump also singled out the Court’s February decision limiting his use of emergency powers to impose tariffs. In Learning Resources v. Trump, six justices concluded that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not authorize the sweeping tariffs imposed by the administration.
Gorsuch and Barrett joined the majority. Kavanaugh dissented, arguing that IEEPA’s authority to “regulate” imports encompassed tariffs and that the president possessed the statutory power to use them in response to declared national emergencies.
Trump criticized the Court not only for rejecting his interpretation of the law but also for failing to protect tariff revenue already collected. “This tariff decision again, all they had to do was a little clause saying any money paid does not have to be paid back,” Trump said. “It would have saved $400 billion. They chose not to save that.”
The rulings illustrate that Trump’s three appointees do not vote as a bloc. Gorsuch opposed the administration in the tariff case but supported Trump’s position on birthright citizenship; Kavanaugh took
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