Trump Says He Regrets Supreme Court Picks After Key Rulings Go Against Him

President Donald Trump says he now regrets nominating three of the Supreme Court justices he helped place on the nation’s highest court, arguing that they have too often ruled against his administration on major issues.

In an interview with Time magazine, Trump was asked whether he regretted nominating Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. His answer was blunt.

“Yeah. Yeah. What can I do? I put them in,” Trump said, adding that the three justices have voted against him too frequently despite receiving what he called “the position of a lifetime.”

The president complained that while the justices occasionally side with his administration, several recent high-profile rulings have gone the other way. Trump contrasted that with Democrats, whom he said tend to remain loyal to the leaders who elevated them.

Trump insisted he is not looking for personal loyalty from judges, saying instead that he wants what he considers to be good decisions for the country. However, he specifically criticized Supreme Court rulings that struck down major pieces of his agenda, including his tariff policies and efforts to restrict birthright citizenship.

The comments come amid growing tension between the White House and the Supreme Court after a series of setbacks for the administration.

In February, the court voted 6-3 to strike down most of Trump’s sweeping tariff program, ruling that his administration had exceeded its authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the majority in that case, while Justice Neil Gorsuch also voted against the administration’s position.

A few months later, the court again ruled against Trump in a 6-3 decision involving his executive order targeting birthright citizenship. The ruling upheld longstanding interpretations of the 14th Amendment and rejected the administration’s attempt to limit automatic citizenship for children born in the United States. In that case, Justice Brett Kavanaugh sided with the majority.

Trump also recently criticized all three justices after they joined a majority that blocked his administration’s mail-in voting plan. Following that decision, the president said they were “not the people” he originally interviewed for the Supreme Court and accused them of failing to live up to his expectations.

The three justices were among the most consequential appointments of Trump’s first presidency and helped create a conservative majority on the court. Yet despite that ideological shift, several of the administration’s biggest legal battles have produced rulings that frustrated the president and prompted his latest public expression of regret.