Trump Flat Out Says He Regrets Nominating All 3 of His Supreme Court Picks: ‘They Voted Against Me Too Often’

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

President Donald Trump flatly said he regrets appointing all three of his Supreme Court justices, complaining that Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett have voted against him “too often.”

Trump made the remarkable admission during a wide-ranging interview with TIME at the White House on Sept. 28 and published in full on Thursday after being asked directly whether he regretted elevating the trio to the nation’s highest court.

“Yeah. Yeah. What can I do? I put them in. They voted against me too often,” Trump said. “I gave them the position of a lifetime, and they vote against me often. They vote for me too.”

Trump contrasted his appointees with the Court’s three Democratic-appointed justices, arguing they display greater bias to the presidents and party that put them there: “The Democrats stick like glue — those three, they virtually never vary,” he said. “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.”

He continued: “They have loyalty to Barack Hussein Obama. They have loyalty to [Joe] Biden, even though Biden doesn’t even know who the hell they are. He wouldn’t know. He doesn’t even know what the Supreme Court is. And me, I gave them the chance of a lifetime, and it’s unfortunate what they did.”

His frustration follows several major Supreme Court defeats during his second term. In February, the Court ruled 6-3 that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not give Trump authority to impose his sweeping emergency tariffs. Gorsuch and Barrett joined the controlling opinion, while Kavanaugh dissented.

The Court dealt Trump another significant setback in June when it rejected his attempt to restrict birthright citizenship. Barrett joined Chief Justice John Roberts and the liberal justices in finding Trump’s order unconstitutional, while Kavanaugh joined a separate majority concluding it violated federal law. Gorsuch dissented.

A day earlier, the justices had also blocked Trump’s effort to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook in a 5-4 decision.

Trump singled out the tariff and citizenship decisions in the TIME interview, calling the former “disastrous for the country.”

“It’s unfortunate what they did — not to me, to our country. Birthright citizenship. It’s becoming a major industry now. People are making millions and millions of dollars, and we’re losing trillions of dollars. And it’s become a corrupt business, all because of the Supreme Court decision,” he said.

He continued: “That decision was for the babies of slaves. Look at where it was—look at where it was approved. It wasn’t for Chinese people, wealthy or unwealthy, coming, you know, pouring into our country. And this tariff decision again, all they had to do was a little clause saying any money paid does not have to be paid back…would have saved $400 billion. They chose not to save that.”

Pressed on whether loyalty was something he wanted from his own Supreme Court selections, Trump initially replied: “I do like loyalty, yeah.”

Asked specifically on whether he expected loyalty from justices, however, Trump answered: “No, I don’t want loyalty. I want good decisions.”

“The tariff decision was disastrous for the country. I want good decisions for the country,” he said. “They’ve treated me – look, I put these people in. It is what it is. 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?”

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