Donald Trump thanked Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and added that he “Won’t forget it” after delivering a speech to Congress Tuesday night.
“Thank you again. Thank you again. Won’t forget it,” he said, shaking Roberts’ hand and then tapping the George W. Bush appointee on the arm.
It was not immediately unclear what, exactly, Trump was thanking him for—though there have been more than a few instances over the past few years of Supreme Court intervention in favor of the president.
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Last year, Roberts authored a decision granting former presidents sweeping immunity from prosecution, in effect helping Trump avoid facing trial for trying to overturn the 2020 election. He had been indicted for offenses relating to his alleged election subversion in Washington, D.C., and in Georgia.
Another case that the conservative-majority court decided in Trump’s favor last year was allowing him to be kept on the ballot after some states pointed to the 14th Amendment’s ban on insurrectionists from holding federal office.
And in another Jan. 6-related case, Roberts wrote for the court that obstruction charges against Jan. 6 defendants had to be narrower than what prosecutors had brought. Trump’s D.C. case included two obstruction charges.
Later on Wednesday night the president took to Truth Social to offer up an explanation for his gratitude.
“The Fake ‘Play the Ref’ News, in order to create a divide between me and our great U.S. Supreme Court, heard me say last night, loudly and openly as I was walking past the Justices on the way to the podium, ‘thank you,’ to Chief Justice John Roberts,” Trump wrote.
“Like most people, I don’t watch Fake News CNN or MSDNC, but I understand they are going ‘crazy’ asking what is it that I was thanking Justice Roberts for?”
Trump claimed neither outlet “called my office to ask,” but said “if they had I would have told these sleazebag ‘journalists’ that I thanked him for SWEARING ME IN ON INAUGURATION DAY, AND DOING A REALLY GOOD JOB IN SO DOING!
“The Fake News never quits!” Trump concluded.
Roberts was one of only four justices in attendance for Trump’s speech. In it, Trump thanked the court for helping achieve his goal of ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs—an apparent reference to its 2023 ruling ending affirmative action in college admissions.
One of the court’s actions the next day, though, Trump may not see as cause for thanks.
In a 5-4 ruling Wednesday, the high court determined that the Trump administration must pay out $2 billion that was owed under USAID contracts. That decision saw Trump fans complain about one of his three appointees, Amy Coney Barrett, for siding with Roberts and the court’s three liberals.
