The irony is Trump precisely wants fools and lap dogs.
Even After Supreme Court Ruling, Trump Insists He Can Do as He Wishes
The New York Times reports Even After Supreme Court Ruling, Trump Insists He Can Do as He Wishes
President Trump’s furious response on Friday to the Supreme Court’s tariffs decision underscored his insistence that he should be granted expansive powers to carry out his agenda as he wishes.
Lashing out after the court decided that he had exceeded his authority in imposing an array of tariffs over the last year, Mr. Trump labeled the justices who ruled against him “fools and lap dogs” and suggested that they had been corrupted by unspecified foreign influence and “slimeballs.”
“I’m ashamed of certain members of the court, absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country,” the president said. He suggested that Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, whom he nominated during his first term, were “an embarrassment to their families” because they sided with the majority against him.
The Trump administration has consistently criticized and sometimes defied lower court rulings that it does not like. Mr. Trump’s bitingly personal attacks on the highest court in the land on Friday appeared intended to undercut the authority of the justices to rein him in and highlighted his lack of deference to the constitutional separation of powers.
At the same time, Mr. Trump gave no indication that he would defy the court’s ruling, pivoting quickly to impose new tariffs using other, more constrained, mechanisms that are still available to him.
He said one set of trade powers, known as Section 122, would be used to impose an across-the-board 10 percent tariff, starting on Tuesday. And he said he would use another set of powers, Section 301, to open investigations into unfair trade practices, which could yield additional tariffs.
The president’s remarks on Friday were revealing about how he views Supreme Court justices, not as independent legal thinkers appointed for their expertise or as a constitutional check on his administration, but as appointees who should be loyal to him.
Until now, the court had been remarkably deferential to him, repeatedly allowing policies that have been challenged in court to go into effect while litigation proceeds. Friday was the first time the court has issued a final ruling on the legality of a piece of Mr. Trump’s agenda.
“Before the entire world, it was the president’s most spectacular display yet of his utter disrespect for the Constitution and his contempt for the Supreme Court of the United States,” J. Michael Luttig, a conservative retired federal appeals court judge, said in an interview.
And while the president ripped into the justices who opposed him, he lavished praise on those who sided with his administration.
“I’m so proud of him,” Mr. Trump said of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, whom he referred to as a “genius.”
Mr. Trump said the three justices who ruled in his favor were “happily invited” to his State of the Union address next week.
The others?
“They’re barely invited,” he said. “Honestly, I couldn’t care less if they come.”
Legal experts said Mr. Trump’s broadside against the court was remarkable.
“In my professional career, I don’t remember any president attacking judges in quite so personal way,” said Jeremy Fogel, a retired federal judge and former executive director of the Federal Judicial Center. “Presidents of both parties have been unhappy with major decisions. That’s not unusual and sometimes they’ll express pretty extreme disappointment about what the court did, but the name-calling in my experience is unprecedented.”
Q: What does “lap dog” mean in slang?
A: A weak person who is controlled by someone else. His coworkers regarded him as the boss’s lap dog.
Trump exactly wants fools and lap dogs on the Court.
Trump Is a Deliberate Con
This Matches Deliberate Con
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Article posted with permission from Mish Shedlock
