Trump targeted two justices he appointed, urging loyalty over judicial independence after rulings against him.
Instead, Trump focused on the two justices he appointed who ruled against him.. “I’m working so hard to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, and then people that I appointed have shown so little respect to our Country, and its people,” he continued.. “What is the reason for this?. They have to do the right thing, but it’s really OK for them to be loyal to the person that appointed them to ‘almost’ the highest position in
the land, that is, a Justice of the United States Supreme Court.” Two things stand out here.. One is that Trump implicitly admits that, by siding with him, Gorsuch and Barrett would not be doing “the right thing.” So deeply ingrained in American culture is judicial independence that even Trump himself, the arch-heretic of American civil republicanism, must acknowledge it.. The other is that Trump drops the pretense and explicitly demands loyalty from them.. Trump’s
demands for personal loyalty are no surprise ten years after his first rise to power.. The Russia investigation, which consumed the first half of Trump’s first term, exploded into public view after Trump demanded personal loyalty from then-FBI Director James Comey and then fired him after he didn’t receive it.. So highly does Trump prize loyalty that he has packed his second-term Cabinet and key federal agencies with loyalists who often place his personal whims
above ethics, the public interest, and the law itself.
Trump Supreme Court, judicial independence, Gorsuch, Barrett, political loyalty, James Comey firing, federal loyalists