Trump Expresses Regret Over Supreme Court Appointments

President Donald Trump stated he regrets nominating all three Supreme Court justices he appointed during his first term, in an interview published on Thursday. The justices, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, were appointed between 2017 and 2020. Trump indicated that they have voted against him too often since taking their positions. He remarked, "Yeah. Yeah. What can I do? I put them in. They voted against me too often. I was very—I gave them the position of a lifetime, and they vote against me often. They vote for me too." Trump expressed his dissatisfaction with the court's rulings on birthright citizenship and his emergency tariffs. He referred to the citizenship ruling as "unfortunate," stating, "It’s become a corrupt business, all because of the Supreme Court decision." The court ruled in June that Trump's order restricting birthright citizenship was unlawful, with Barrett and Kavanaugh in the majority and Gorsuch dissenting. Trump also criticized the justices for a February ruling that invalidated his global tariffs, arguing that a specific clause could have prevented a significant financial payout. He stated, "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." Trump contrasted the loyalty of the court's Democratic appointees with his own justices, saying, "I do like loyalty, yeah," but later clarified, "No, I don’t want loyalty. I want good decisions." His comments follow previous criticisms of the justices regarding a September ruling that did not allow a Postal Service directive to restrict mail-in ballots ahead of the midterms, which he labeled as “another bad decision.” Trump previously expressed his discontent on Truth Social, stating, "These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves."