Trump Judge Criticism: Gave Them The Dream Job - Vote Against Me

In recent days, Donald Trump has come down hard on judges he himself has nominated for their posts. Among other things, the president complained about judges Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh in the Supreme Court, who have gone against several Trump proposals recently.

In an interview on Monday, the president stated that he regrets the nomination of the three judges.

- What can I do? I was the one who appointed them. They vote against me far too often. I gave them their dream job and yet they so often vote against me, says Trump in the interview according to Reuters.

Trump further says that he likes loyalty, but that he does not want loyalty from the judges, but "good decisions".

In the United States, the executive power, held by the president, is separate from the legislative and judicial powers. Judicial power rests with the federal judiciary, with the Supreme Court as the highest instance.

Jan Hallenberg, US expert and associate senior researcher at the Foreign Policy Institute, believes that Donald Trump is not completely clear about what the task of the judges is.

- I think he has misunderstood: He probably believes that all federal employees whom he has appointed in some sense are subordinate to him and must do as he says. He believes they should be on his side all the time.

Noah Feldman, professor of law at Harvard, is on the same track as Jan Hallenberg.

- Trump fundamentally misunderstands what a judge in the Supreme Court is supposed to do. They do not see their task as having to carry out the will of the president. Thank God for that, he told the Financial Times.

Trump's anger is likely rooted in several rulings in recent months in which any or all of the three designated judges have gone against the Trump administration's line. Among other things, they have voted against Trump's attempts to limit postal voting, his customs policy and the law that automatically grants every person born in the United States US citizenship.

On social media, Trump accuses the conservative judges of giving in to pressure from the "radical left."

"These are not the people I interviewed for a position on the US Supreme Court; they are just a shadow of their former selves - a court that is costing the US trillions of dollars through shockingly bad rulings," he writes.

Many other Republicans are all the more pleased with the Supreme Court and what it has accomplished in recent years. In 2022, the court overturned, among other things, the ruling that for nearly 50 years gave women across the country the right to free abortion.

Mid-term elections await in November. It will determine how easily Trump will be able to get his policies through during the remainder of his term.

Judges in the Supreme Court are only appointed when someone dies or chooses to resign. It is therefore unlikely that Trump would be able to nominate a fourth judge before his term ends. And if given the chance, the Senate needs to approve Trump's nominee.

- He could well try to nominate judges who are even more loyal to him, but I think it will be difficult because the Republicans will have a very small majority - if any at all. I can't imagine he will be able to get better judges than these.

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