President Donald Trump has expressed regret regarding his three appointments to the Supreme Court: Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. The President stated his frustration stems from their voting records, which he claims have too often gone against his administration's positions. These comments were made during an interview with TIME, published Thursday, marking one of his most direct public criticisms of all three justices simultaneously.
"It’s unfortunate what they did — not to me, to our country." President Donald Trump
President Trump nominated Justice Gorsuch in 2017, Justice Kavanaugh in 2018, and Justice Barrett shortly before the 2020 presidential election. These selections significantly shaped the ideological composition of the nation's highest court during his first term, giving him an unusually profound influence over its makeup. When directly asked during the TIME interview whether he regretted these appointments, President Trump responded without hesitation, "Yeah. Yeah. What can I do? I put them in." He elaborated on his disappointment, stating, "They voted against me too often." While acknowledging, "They vote for me too," his primary concern appeared to be the frequency with which they have sided against his policies in significant cases.
Among the specific decisions that drew President Trump's ire were Supreme Court rulings concerning birthright citizenship and his administration’s emergency tariff policies. Regarding the court's handling of his attempt to restrict birthright citizenship, President Trump expressed particular frustration. He remarked, "It’s unfortunate what they did — not to me, to our country." He further argued that the decision had created broader problems, describing the situation as having become "a corrupt business." In a June ruling on the administration's birthright-citizenship policy, Justice Barrett sided with the majority opinion, while Justice Gorsuch dissented. Justice Kavanaugh agreed with the judgment in part, writing separately.
President Trump also criticized a February decision related to his global tariffs. According to President Trump, the justices could have included specific language to prevent the government from having to return money already collected under the tariff policy. He claimed, "All they had to do was a little clause saying any money paid does not have to be paid back," which he asserted "would have saved $400 billion." He added, "They chose not to save that."
The President also touched upon what he perceives as greater ideological unity among the Supreme Court’s Democratic-appointed justices, praising their tendency to vote together and expressing admiration for their loyalty. This observation prompted the interviewer to inquire whether President Trump desired similar loyalty from his own nominees. President Trump initially responded, "I do like loyalty, yeah." However, when pressed further, he clarified his stance, stating, "No, I don’t want loyalty. I want good decisions." This clarification underscores a tension between a president's expectation for judicial outcomes aligned with their policy goals and the principle of judicial independence.
These latest remarks follow previous instances of President Trump publicly criticizing his appointees. In September, after the justices declined to allow a Postal Service directive restricting certain mail-in ballots ahead of the midterm elections, President Trump publicly rebuked his own selections. At the time, he stated, "These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court," and went further to describe them as "merely a shell of their original selves."
The President's current comments in the TIME interview reiterate his ongoing dissatisfaction with aspects of his appointees' judicial performance. Despite personally selecting Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett for lifetime positions on the nation's highest court, President Trump now openly states he regrets all three choices, highlighting a persistent divergence between his expectations and the court's rulings on issues he considers vital.
