The Supreme Court gives Trump countless victories — and he still wants more

Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Pool via REUTERS

President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement have enjoyed some major legal victories in recent weeks, including the U.S. Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais — which, critics say, guts the protections of the Voting Rights Act — and a 4-3 Virginia Supreme Court ruling that struck down the state's new congressional maps.

But according to The New Republic's Matt Ford, Trump deeply resents the U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority. Although the Roberts Court is voting in Trump's interests more often than not, Ford emphasizes, he is angry with the six GOP-appointed justices for voting against him at all.

Referencing a May 10 post on Trump's Truth Social platform, Ford observes, "The president gave a surprisingly frank assessment of his view of the Supreme Court — and how he expects personal loyalty from the justices that he appoints to it. In the lengthy post, Trump criticized two members of the High Court for voting in Trump v. Learning Resources, the case that nixed his purported ability to impose hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs under a Cold War-era emergency-powers law. The Supreme Court held 6-3 that Trump had exceeded the powers laid out in the statute…. It would be hard to find a better example than this of Trump's thinking that the justices that he nominated to the High Court should be personally loyal to him."

Trump, according to Ford, believes he is entitled to total obedience from Supreme Court justices "simply because he appointed them" and has the same view of lower federal court judges he chose. And in doing so, Ford laments, Trump shows a total disregard for "judicial independence."

"If this is his public thinking about the justices," Ford warns, "it casts doubt on whether any second-term Trump appointee can be trusted to place the national interest or the law ahead of Trump's personal and political goals…. If Trump is willing to demand personal loyalty from Supreme Court justices, what about his lower-court nominees?"

Trump, Ford argues, "should be thrilled with his treatment by the Supreme Court these days" but is resentful instead.

"The Supreme Court has given him nearly everything that he has wanted over the last two years — and he still isn't satisfied," Ford observes. "This is the same Supreme Court that just boosted his party's midterm chances earlier this month by demolishing what's left of the Voting Rights Act."

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