President Donald Trump’s grievance against the Supreme Court has turned “almost obsessive,” and being checked by his own appointees “drives him crazy,” a historian said.
Stephen Wermiel, a Supreme Court historian and law professor at American University, gave the assessment in an interview with Politico published on Thursday, days before the justices open their new term on Monday.
“The fact that some of the people checking his power are people that he appointed drives him crazy because he thinks that by appointing them, they owe him loyalty and allegiance,” Wermiel said.
Trump has increasingly used Truth Social to attack the court after he lost his efforts to restrict mail-in voting, implement tariffs and end birthright citizenship, Politico noted. Trump’s sharpest words were directed at Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, the three he put on the bench, whom he called “a shell of their original selves,” Politico added.
“It’s in his head,” Wermiel said. “It’s almost obsessive.”
Trump has also suggested he expects to pay a price for the attacks. Last month, he wrote that his criticism of the court “will likely cost me dearly for years to come,” without explaining what he feared, Politico noted.
The anger persists even though his record at the court is strong, Politico pointed out. His administration has won more than 70 percent of its emergency docket cases since he returned to office. Those wins cleared the way for mass federal layoffs, sweeping grant cuts and a surge in deportations.
“I think he ought to be very grateful for all the victories he’s won in the court,” Ed Whelan, who served in the Justice Department under President George W. Bush and clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia, said. “He could easily have lost some others.”
Wermiel said no modern president has matched Trump’s tone.
“Presidents have criticized the court. I don’t know of anyone who has gone to such great lengths to personally try to demean the court and individual justices and in more strident terms than ever before,” he said.
More clashes may be coming. Whelan expects oversight fights with congressional Democrats to reach the justices after next month’s midterms.
“If he manages to lose both houses of Congress, as I suspect he will, there may be lots of conflicts going to the court over the next couple years,” he said.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to Politico’s request for comment.
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