President Donald Trump is reportedly livid that some of his hand-picked Supreme Court justices aren’t falling in line—especially Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who has emerged as a recurring target of his behind-the-scenes rage.
According to CNN, Trump’s private grumbling about Barrett has dragged on for nearly a year. The complaints are wide-ranging, but his fixation on Barrett has intensified, fueled by right-wing allies saying that she’s “weak” and has drifted from the hardline persona she projected during her confirmation.
Trump has also groused about Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, who were also confirmed during his first term. But Barrett’s perceived disloyalty hits differently. In Trumpworld, deviation is betrayal.
The discontent follows a string of rulings where Barrett didn’t deliver for the far right. In March, she and Chief Justice John Roberts voted to reject Trump’s demand to freeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid. The blowback from MAGA loyalists was instant, with some calling her a “DEI hire” and “evil.”
A photo of the Supreme Court, featuring Justice Amy Coney Barrett in the back left corner.
Barrett and Roberts also sided with the court’s liberals in January in a decision that allowed Trump to be sentenced in his New York hush money case. Trump initially downplayed the outcome as a “fair decision,” but it added to the perception that his appointees are no longer reliable.
The fury grew louder when Barrett recused herself from a high-stakes case regarding whether a Catholic charter school in Oklahoma could receive public funding because she had ties to the school’s legal team. Without her vote, the court was split 4-4, leaving in place a state ruling that found the school unconstitutional.
Trump and his allies are now reportedly claiming that Barrett might be acting out of fear. Her sister was targeted with a bomb threat in South Carolina earlier this year, and the broader climate for judges who defy Trump has grown increasingly hostile.
According to CNN, Trump has even asked advisers whether increased security would make Barrett feel “more comfortable”—not out of concern for her safety, but in the hopes that she’ll return to form.
Publicly, Trump is pretending that everything’s fine.
“President Trump will always stand with the U.S. Supreme Court,” deputy press secretary Harrison Fields told CNN, claiming that Trump “may disagree with the Court and some of its rulings” but still “respects its foundational role.”
But that statement does not reflect reality.
Barrett was Trump’s final Supreme Court nominee in 2020, but her rise began years earlier when she became a favorite of religious conservatives during her confirmation to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. She’s certainly not perfect, but the fact that voting against Trump has gotten her in his bad graces is saying something.
This isn’t just about Barrett, though. Trump has been escalating his broader war on judges and the legal system, blasting rulings that don’t serve him and turning on the very conservatives who helped build his judicial empire.
After a federal appeals court ruled against one of his tariff schemes, Trump lashed out at Federalist Society leader Leonard Leo, calling him a “sleazebag” and “a bad person, who in his own way, probably hates America.”
For now, at least, Trump has avoided going after Barrett directly.
“He does truly respect the Supreme Court, so he doesn’t want to torch any of his appointees,” a senior White House official said. “He’s called on them as a group to rein in the lower courts and do the right thing, but has intentionally not attacked any of the justices by name.”
Even with a few defections, Barrett is still a reliable vote for the right. She didn’t dissent in cases backing Trump’s transgender military ban, ending protections for Venezuelan immigrants, or slashing education and oversight funding. And she voted with Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito in more than 80% of last term’s cases.
Of course, in Trumpland, loyalty is absolute—anything less will make you a target.
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