Donald Trump’s ability to sink to new lows for presidential conduct is, alas, no longer a surprise, but his response to yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling against him on tariffing authority was appallingly awful. Here are some excerpts from a transcript of his remarks:
“The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing, and I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed, for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country.”
On “some of our people” who voted against him: “they’re just being fools and lapdogs for the RINOs and the radical left Democrats and, not that this should have anything at all to do with it, they’re very unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution.”
“It’s my opinion that the court has been swayed by foreign interests and a political movement that is far smaller than people would ever think. It’s a small movement…. But these people are obnoxious, ignorant and loud. They’re very loud. And I think certain justices are afraid of that. They don’t want to do the right thing. They’re afraid of it.”
As is often the case, Trump has things exactly backwards. He had been trying for months to intimidate the justices into ruling for him, and he failed. I’m not at all suggesting that he intimidated the dissenters. This was a difficult case in which very smart conservative justices could reach different results. But Trump’s charges that the justices in the majority are “fools and lapdogs for the RINOs and the radical left Democrats,” that they’re “very unpatriotic and disloyal to our Constitution,” that they have “been swayed by foreign interests,” and that they are “afraid … to do the right thing” are beneath contempt.
At the outset of Trump’s second term, I was hoping that he might be able to appoint two more justices to the Court and thus entrench a conservative rule-of-law majority for the next two decades or so. At this point, it’s clear that he wouldn’t appoint anyone who doesn’t pass his own lapdog test.