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In an unprecedented move, President Donald Trump attended oral arguments in the Supreme Court on Tuesday as justices weighed his executive order on birthright citizenship, sparking concern that he was trying to intimidate justices after months of criticism over their rulings.
Trump’s motorcade arrived at the court around 10 am Eastern Time, and the president walked into the building, where he sat in the first row of the public seating alongside Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, reports said. Trump left about an hour and a half into the arguments, which lasted more than two hours.
The extraordinary move is a first for any sitting president, and he’s drawn criticism from experts saying that it could be viewed as a way to intimidate justices into favoring his administration’s arguments trying to end the way birthright citizenship has been done for centuries in the United States.
The justices did not react to his presence, reports say. Most of the justices appeared to be skeptical of the administration’s arguments, presented by Solicitor General D. John Sauer, suggesting that the Court may rule against the Trump administration to protect birthright citizenship.
Trump’s appearance at the Court came after he openly criticized justices who rule against him on Tuesday. He complained that liberal justices rule against him even if he brings “the greatest case ever.”
But conservative justices do the same because they “want to show how honorable they are,” he said. “Some people would call it stupidity. Some people would call it disloyal,” Trump said. “The other side almost never does it.”
Trump has a history of attacking Supreme Court justices personally for perceived slights against him, further eroding the separation of powers established between the judiciary and the executive.
In February, he lashed out at Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch for their decisions to strike down his tariff policies.
He said that he was “ashamed of certain members of the court” in remarks to the press, and said that they were still invited to his State of the Union address, but “barely.” Later, when asked about Barrett and Gorsuch’s opinions, he said: “I don’t want to say whether I regret nominating them. I think their decision was terrible. I think it’s an embarrassment to their families.”
Trump had considered visiting the Supreme Court when they heard arguments over his tariff policy, but decided against it as to not “distract from the importance of this Decision.” He had received criticism from both Democrats and a Republican over the idea.
Trump also suggested that those who ruled against his birthright citizenship order would be “dumb” in a post on Truth Social on Monday.
Ignoring his own program for immigrants to buy Trump-branded “gold” or “platinum” cards for $1 million in exchange for citizenship, Trump once again invoked an unproven conspiracy theory that Chinese people are paying people to engage in a shady “birth tourism” scheme to populate the U.S. with Chinese people.
“Birthright Citizenship is not about rich people from China, and the rest of the World, who want their children, and hundreds of thousands more, FOR PAY, to ridiculously become citizens of the United States of America. It is about the BABIES OF SLAVES!” he posted on Truth Social.
“Dumb Judges and Justices will not a great Country make!” he went on.
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