A fast-moving backlash from prominent conservatives followed the Supreme Court’s Tuesday decision upholding birthright citizenship, with House Speaker Mike Johnson expressing disappointment, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin saying he “adamantly disagreed,” and f
For former Trump strategist Steve Bannon, the Supreme Court’s message on birthright citizenship wasn’t just a legal defeat. It was something he wanted to puncture in real time.
On Tuesday. after the Supreme Court ruled against President Donald Trump on birthright citizenship. Bannon appeared in a clip criticizing Chief Justice John Roberts and delivering a taunt that quickly landed with MAGA audiences: “Roberts. he gave it to ya. baby. right between the eyes. How do you like [that], suck on that!”.
The backlash didn’t stop with Bannon. A broader slice of right-wing figures and lawmakers piled on the court’s decision, spreading the anger across television and cable shows in a tight cluster of comments—each one taking issue with what the ruling means for the country’s definition of citizenship.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said he was “very disappointed” in the ruling. Fox News anchor Kayleigh McEnany called it a “travesty.” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said he “adamantly disagreed” with the decision. Fox News contributor Mollie Hemingway went further. arguing the ruling was as bad as Dred Scott. the 1857 Supreme Court decision that said enslaved people were not citizens.
The court’s ruling came after it upheld birthright citizenship and ruled that people born in the USA are automatically American citizens. In the majority opinion. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that “Citizenship. then and now. was the right to have rights— to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land. ’” adding. “We keep that promise today.”.
Trump’s team had argued the policy should be read differently. warning that “birth tourism”—where foreigners travel to the USA to give birth—abused the system and went against the spirit of the law. Trump has also said the Fourteenth Amendment was meant to ensure that the children of slaves became citizens. but that it has “morphed into a ‘great scam.’”.
The Supreme Court’s decision arrived with sharp political timing for the administration. and Trump didn’t soften his response on Tuesday. He criticized the ruling while also saying the court had been “very fair” to Republicans overall. He then offered a pointed jab that also served as a kind of political signal: he congratulated China on the ruling.
Not every conservative voice in the broader fight was included in the media montage. but the criticism echoed beyond Bannon and the elected officials. The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh bashed Justice Amy Coney Barrett for being a “DEI hire” after she ruled against Trump. again. Walsh said the 6-3 ruling had opened the “floodgates for foreign invaders to flock across our borders and spawn.”.
Within hours. the argument had moved from the courtroom to the cultural and political battlefield—less about fine distinctions in constitutional interpretation and more about who gets to shape the story of citizenship itself. For Trump and his allies, the court didn’t just rule against them. It forced them to confront how quickly their definition of the fight—birth tourism versus “every free-born person”—became an established legal reality.
Supreme Court birthright citizenship John Roberts Donald Trump Steve Bannon Mike Johnson Markwayne Mullin Kayleigh McEnany Mollie Hemingway Dred Scott Amy Coney Barrett Fourteenth Amendment China