BS BULLETIN:
- President Trump says he regrets nominating Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
- “They voted against me too often,” Trump told TIME in a White House interview.
- Trump said he does not want loyalty from the justices — he wants “good decisions.”
President Donald Trump is no longer dancing around the question.
Asked directly whether he regrets putting Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court, Trump answered:
“Yeah. Yeah. What can I do? I put them in. They voted against me too often.”
The comments came during a wide-ranging TIME interview conducted Monday and published Thursday.
Trump continued: ‘I gave them the position of a lifetime, and they vote against me often. They vote for me too.”
He then contrasted his three nominees with the Court’s Democratic-appointed justices, arguing that they remain far more unified.
“The Democrats stick like glue — those three, they virtually never vary,” Trump 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.”
Asked whether that meant he wanted loyalty from his own Supreme Court appointees, Trump initially acknowledged, “I do like loyalty, yeah.”
But when the question was put to him specifically about the justices, Trump drew a distinction. “No, I don’t want loyalty. I want good decisions.”
The frustration has been building.
In February, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s sweeping emergency tariffs in a 6-3 decision. Gorsuch and Barrett joined the controlling opinion while Kavanaugh dissented.
Trump was furious at the time, calling Gorsuch and Barrett’s ruling “terrible” and saying it was “an embarrassment to their families.”
The Court later rejected Trump’s attempt to restrict birthright citizenship. Barrett joined Chief Justice John Roberts and the liberal justices in finding Trump’s order unconstitutional, while Kavanaugh joined a separate majority concluding it violated federal law.
Trump cited both decisions during the TIME interview.
“Very disappointing, very disappointing for the country — their decisions,” Trump said.
Seven months ago, when reporters asked whether he regretted nominating Gorsuch and Barrett, Trump stopped short of saying yes.
This time, he didn’t.
DBS WIRE SOURCES
- Mediaite — Trump says he regrets nominating all three Supreme Court picks
- Reuters — Trump says he regrets nominating Gorsuch, Barrett and Kavanaugh
- Bloomberg Law — Trump laments lack of loyalty from Supreme Court appointees
- Roll Call/Factbase — Trump’s February remarks following the tariff decision
