President Donald Trump recently voiced his dissatisfaction with the actions of his appointed Supreme Court justices, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. In an interview with TIME Magazine, he admitted to regretting their nominations, noting they have voted against him “too often” and seem to favor past Democratic administrations more than his own.
“What can I do? I put them in,” Trump commented. “They voted against me too often. I gave them the position of a lifetime, and they vote against me often.”
According to the principles they were sworn to uphold, Supreme Court justices are meant to remain loyal to the Constitution itself, prioritizing it above partisanship. Trump’s frustrations appear to stem not from a craving for personal loyalty, but rather from a desire for constitutional adherence—he wishes to see his conservative picks firmly support the foundational texts, rather than bend to political pressures from the left.
“I don’t want loyalty. I want good decisions,” Trump pointed out. “The tariff decision was disastrous for the country. I want good decisions for the country. The Democrats stick like glue — those three, they virtually never vary. 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. So they have loyalty to Barack Hussein Obama. They have loyalty to Biden, even though Biden doesn’t even know who the hell they are.”
This criticism followed a recent 6-3 ruling where Gorsuch, Barrett, and Kavanaugh helped block Trump’s plan for mail-in voting. Additionally, in February, the court invalidated much of Trump’s tariff policy, determining his application of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act was inappropriate.
Justice Barrett was opposed to the Trump administration in both cases, while Gorsuch supported the dismissal of tariffs, and Kavanaugh voted against the executive order on birthright citizenship.
“Look, I put these people in. It is what it is,” Trump stated in the interview. “Very disappointing, very disappointing for the country—their decisions. And the country knows it. Very disappointing for the country. The other ones—they stick like glue. It’s unbelievable, right.”
Trump added, “I gave them the chance of a lifetime, and it’s unfortunate what they did.”
Gorsuch, a textualist, took over Antonin Scalia’s seat in 2017, followed by Kavanaugh in 2018 after Anthony Kennedy retired. Barrett, who has a strong academic background and served on the federal bench, joined the court in October 2020, marking her as the fifth woman to hold such a position.
