WASHINGTON — President Trump launched a scathing attack on Supreme Court justices Friday after suffering a 6-3 defeat on the legality of his “reciprocal” and fentanyl tariffs.
“I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed, for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country,” Trump said in the White House briefing room, after two justices he nominated — Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch — voted against his signature trade policies.
“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.”
Trump said that the three Democrat-nominated justices — Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor — were automatically against his policies and are a “disgrace to our nation.”
Chief Justice John Roberts, a nominee of Republican President George W. Bush, wrote the majority opinion finding that Trump misused emergency powers to enact the tariffs.
The president said it’s possible that Roberts, Barrett and Gorsuch were “being politically correct, which has happened before, far too often with certain members of this court.”
“In fact,” Trump said, “they’re just being fools and lap dogs for the RINOs and the radical-left Democrats.”
Here’s the latest on President Trump’s tariffs following Supreme Court ruling:
He said that for Barrett and Gorsuch, the ruling should be “an embarrassment to their families.”
The remaining three Republican-nominated justices — Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas — dissented and Trump singled out Kavanaugh for praise, gushing, “I’m so proud of him.”
The president went on to say that some of the opponents of his tariffs who argued before the court were “real slimeballs,” in possible reference to Neal Katyal, former President Barack Obama’s solicitor general, who argued against the tariffs on behalf of two educational toymakers.
“These people [opposed to tariffs] are obnoxious, ignorant and loud,” Trump said. “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.”
Trump also ripped the justices for not issuing a decision sooner following oral arguments in November — which allowed the amount of money subject to refunds to grow to $175 billion and delayed his plans to attempt to use a different legal authority to replace the tariff scheme.
“They should have released this a long time ago,” Trump said. “We waited months, and that gave uncertainty. Now we have certainty, and I think you’re going to see the country get much stronger because of it.”
The president promised to impose a new 10% global tariff under a separate trade law to replace the “Liberation Day” baseline tariff that the justices had invalidated.
Trump is due to deliver his annual State of the Union speech next Tuesday before a joint session of Congress, which traditionally is attended by a cohort of justices.
“They’re barely invited. Honestly, I couldn’t care less if they come,” Trump said.
