President Donald Trump is clearly unhappy with the Supreme Court.
In his hour-long speech at Wednesday night’s National Republican Congressional Committee fundraising dinner, the 79-year-old devoted several minutes to venting his frustrations about the Supreme Court justices he feels betrayed him by striking down his elaborate tariff scheme.
Trump ramped up his attacks in his speech, notably on the Supreme Court, after it ruled against sparing the U.S. government from refunding billions in tariffs paid by American importers.
“I got a decision on tariffs that’s going to cost our country... hundreds of billions, potentially, of refunds,” Trump told attendees at the dinner, which was held in D.C’s Union Station. “Giving them back to people that have been ripping off our country because the Supreme Court didn’t want to put one little sentence that all money taken in up till this date doesn’t have to be paid back,” he continued. “Going to cost us hundreds of billions of dollars. So sad to see.”
He then spent several minutes rambling about college sports in response to last year’s ruling and Trump’s subsequent executive order about scholarships for student athletes before resuming his attacks on the Supreme Court.
“Courts, bad courts in this country are costing us a tremendous amount of money,” Trump said. “And the Supreme Court, that’s right, of the United States, cost our country—all they needed was a sentence—hundreds of billions of dollars and they couldn’t care less. They couldn’t care less.”
“And not that it matters, doesn’t matter at all,” he continued. “But two of the people that voted for that I appointed and they sicken me. They sicken me because they’re bad for our country,” he added, referring to Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, both of whom he appointed during his first term.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
Gorsuch and Barrett both voted with the liberal justices in last month’s 6-3 decision in which the court found that Trump had overstepped his authority by attempting to impose wide-ranging tariffs on countries around the world, ruling that he could not impose them using a 1977 law designed to address national emergencies.
“The President asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope. In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote in the decision.
Conservative justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh dissented. Kavanaugh was also appointed by Trump during his first term.
In response to the ruling, the president decried the judges as “lap dogs,” adding that they were a “disgrace to our nation” and “disloyal to the Constitution.” He also accused them of being swayed by foreign interests and unidentified “slimeballs” from other countries.
“The Supreme Court’s ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing, and I’m ashamed of certain members of the Court—absolutely ashamed for not having the courage to do what’s right for our country,” he told reporters.
Earlier this month, weeks after the decision had been made, he posted a lengthy rant to TruthSocial in which he said that the ruling was one that “mattered most to me” and suggested that it was the reason the U.S. has been in “such major decline.”
Bush appointee Roberts responded to the increasing number of attacks on the judiciary during a public appearance a day later, with many interpreting his remarks as a thinly veiled response to the president in particular.
“Judges around the country work very hard to get it right, and if they don’t, their opinions are subject to criticism,” Roberts said.
“But personally directed hostility is dangerous, and it’s got to stop.”
