A Democracy Drive Thread
He drags every fight to the Supreme Court and cheers when he wins. When he loses, the justices he appointed become “fools and lapdogs,” “disloyal,” and “a shell of their original selves,” and he regrets ever picking them.
He takes every fight he can to the Supreme Court: tariffs, birthright citizenship, mail-in voting, the firing of independent officials, his own sexual-abuse verdict. When the justices rule for him, he celebrates. When they rule against him, he goes after them personally, starting with the three he put on the bench: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
In 2026 alone the Court ruled against him on tariffs (February, 6–3), birthright citizenship (June, 6–3) and mail-in voting (September, 7–2). After each loss, the attacks got worse. He called justices “a disgrace to our nation,” “disloyal to the Constitution,” “fools and lapdogs,” an “embarrassment to their families,” “a shell of their original selves,” and said they “sicken me.” He suggested, without evidence, that foreign interests sway the Court. In October he said he regrets appointing all three.
In March, Chief Justice John Roberts said in public that “personally directed hostility is dangerous and it’s got to stop.” Eight days later Trump told a Republican fundraiser that two of the justices “sicken me” and called judges who rule against him “criminals.” His attorney general said the attacks will continue: “This isn’t the first time that he’s done it, and it won’t be the last.”
The same Court gave him presidential immunity, ended nationwide injunctions against his orders, and let him fire independent officials at will. He does not object to the Court having power. He objects to it using that power against him. To him, a seat on the Supreme Court is a gift he handed out, and he expects to be repaid in votes.
January 12, 2026
In his own words
Trump claimed the U.S. would have to pay back “many Hundreds of Billions of Dollars” and “Trillions” more counting private investments. Earlier he had urged supporters to “pray that the United States Supreme Court has the Wisdom and Genius to allow Tariffs.”
“If the Supreme Court rules against the United States of America on this National Security bonanza, WE’RE SCREWED!”
February 20, 2026
On February 20, 2026, the Court ruled 6–3 that the emergency-powers law did not authorize his global tariffs, with two of his own appointees, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, in the majority. At the White House that day, Trump called the three Democratic appointees in the majority “fools and lapdogs,” suggested without evidence that foreign interests have “undue influence” over the Court (“Whether it’s through fear or respect or friendships, I don’t know”), and said of Gorsuch and Barrett: “I think it’s an embarrassment to their families, you wanna know the truth, the two of them.” Vice President JD Vance called the decision “lawlessness from the Court, plain and simple.” The same day Trump announced new tariffs under a different law to replace the ones the Court struck down.
“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 the ground
Writing for the majority in Learning Resources v. Trump, Chief Justice John Roberts said a power of that “breadth, history, and constitutional context” required “clear congressional authorization”: “Our task today is to decide only whether the power to regulate importation embraces the power to impose tariffs. It does not.” Justices Thomas, Alito and Kavanaugh dissented.
March 15, 2026
In his own words
In a long Truth Social post on March 15, 2026, Trump thanked the three conservative justices who had sided with him in the tariff case, then went after, without naming them, the two he had appointed who ruled against him, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett. Democratic appointees always stick together, he wrote, but “Republicans do not do this.” Two days later, in a rare public appearance at Rice University, Chief Justice John Roberts said that “personally directed hostility is dangerous and it’s got to stop.”
“They openly disrespect the Presidents who nominate them to the highest position in the Land ... and go out of their way, with bad and wrongful rulings and intentions, to prove how ‘honest,’ ‘independent,’ and ‘legitimate’ they are.”
March 25, 2026
In his own words
Speaking at the National Republican Congressional Committee dinner on March 25, 2026, Trump singled out Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, the two of his appointees who voted to strike down his tariffs, a ruling that left the government owing roughly $175 billion in refunds. “All they needed was a sentence,” he said. He then asked Republicans in Congress to pass a crime bill that “cracks down on rogue judges,” and said: “We got rogue judges that are criminals. They’re criminals, what they do to our country, the decisions that they hand down.”
“Two of the people that voted for that I appointed, and they sicken me. They sicken me. Because they’re bad for our country.”
April 1, 2026
On the ground
The 14th Amendment grants citizenship to all persons born on U.S. soil and subject to its jurisdiction. On June 30, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that Trump’s order was unlawful. Chief Justice John Roberts found “scant evidence” for the administration’s reading: “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights.”
April 22, 2026
In a series of Truth Social posts, Trump raged that the conservative justices — including ones he had appointed — were showing “very little loyalty” to him, treating the Court as something that owes him fealty rather than an independent branch.
“very little loyalty”
May 10, 2026
Trump posted that Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett should be more loyal to him because he put them on the Court, casting their independence as ingratitude and “disrespect” and floating packing the bench.
June 30, 2026
In his own words
On June 30, 2026, the Court upheld birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment. Trump called the ruling “too bad,” posted that the United States was the only country “STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship!” (it is not the only one) and urged Congress to end it with legislation, writing that “No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary!” The Court had ruled on constitutional grounds, which an ordinary law cannot override.
“Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship. They will have my Complete and Total Support!”
September 15, 2026
In his own words
On September 14, 2026, the Court refused to let a Postal Service rule, adopted at Trump’s direction, take effect before the November 3 midterms. It would have required states to hand over voter-specific data and use barcoded, agency-approved envelopes, and let the Postal Service refuse ballots that did not comply. Only Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented; Trump called them “legends, both.” The next day he called the ruling “horrible, highly political,” said the Court was “costing the United States Trillions of Dollars,” and wrote: “The Supreme Court has really let our Country down! Certain Justices are petrified of these crazed and depraved Democrats.” Attorney General Todd Blanche said the administration would comply, then defended the attacks: “This isn’t the first time that he’s done it, and it won’t be the last.”
“These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves.”
October 1, 2026
In his own words
In a Time magazine interview published October 1, 2026, Trump said yes when asked whether he regrets nominating his three justices. He praised the liberal justices for sticking “like glue” out of “loyalty to Barack Hussein Obama” and to Biden. Asked whether he wants loyalty from his own picks, he said, “I do like loyalty, yeah,” then, pressed again: “No, I don’t want loyalty. I want good decisions. The tariff decision was disastrous for the country.” The same three justices voted with the majority that gave him broad presidential immunity in 2024 and helped overturn Roe v. Wade; this term the Court also let him fire independent agency leaders and end deportation protections for Haitians and Syrians.
“Yeah. Yeah. What can I do? I put them in. They voted against me too often. I gave them the position of a lifetime, and they vote against me often.”