Trump publicly rebukes Justices Barrett and Gorsuch over February tariff ruling, warns Court off birthright citizenship case
In a long Truth Social post on Sunday, US President Donald Trump named Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch — both his own appointees — and accused them of having "hurt our Country so badly" by joining the 6-3 February decision that struck down his emergency-statute tariffs, which he said had cost the United States $159 billion in refunds. Trump openly invoked the question of loyalty owed to the president who appointed them, and used the same post to warn the Court against a "negative ruling" on his executive order repealing birthright citizenship, which he called "not Economically sustainable" on top of the tariff decision.
US President Donald Trump on Sunday published a lengthy Truth Social post rebuking Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch by name for their votes in the 6-3 February ruling against his attempt to invoke an emergency statute to impose higher tariffs.
"They were appointed by me, and yet have hurt our Country so badly!" Trump wrote. "I do not believe they meant to do so, but their decision on Tariffs cost the United States 159 Billion Dollars that we have to pay back to enemies, and people, companies, and Countries, that have been ripping us off for years." He called the outcome "hardly believable."
The February ruling required the federal government to refund the duties already collected. Last month, after Customs and Border Protection identified more than 330,000 importers who had paid Trump's tariffs, the president said he would "remember" any company that did not request a refund. In Sunday's post he questioned why the justices had ordered repayment of all the funds collected.
Trump explicitly framed the criticism in terms of personal loyalty. "I'm working so hard to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, and then people that I appointed have shown so little respect to our Country, and its people. What is the reason for this?" he wrote. "They have to do the right thing, but it's really OK for them to be loyal to the person that appointed them to 'almost' the highest position in the land, that is, a Justice of the United States Supreme Court."
The post closed with a direct warning to the Court ahead of its pending review of Trump's executive order repealing birthright citizenship. "Well, maybe Neil, and Amy, just had a really bad day, but our Country can only handle so many decisions of that magnitude before it breaks down, and cracks!!! Sometimes decisions have to be allowed to use Good, Strong, Common Sense as a guide," Trump wrote, adding that "A negative ruling on Birthright Citizenship, on top of the recent Supreme Court Tariff catastrophe, is not Economically sustainable for the United States of America."