President Donald Trump has been privately fuming about the U.S. Supreme Court justices he nominated and publicly feuding with the conservative mainstay that recommended them, and a veteran reporter explained why the rift has developed.
The president has been griping for at least a year about justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and, especially, Amy Coney Barrett, according to multiple sources, and his anger has been fueled by right-wing allies like Laura Loomer, who have been telling Trump they're not in line with the MAGA movement, and NOTUS reporter Evan McMorris-Santoro told "CNN This Morning" what's fueling this dynamic.
"Part of this is what makes the Trump administration extremely different, part of it is what makes it the same," McMorris-Santoro said. "Let's start with the same: A president being annoyed at his Supreme Court picks, not weird, happened a lot of times. They hire these people for a lifetime position, they put them on – they're going to be judges, they're not going to be your administration."
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Trump has publicly lashed out at longtime Federalist Society head Leonard Leo, whose recommendations have shaped the judiciary under Republican presidents, calling him a "real 'sleazebag'" and "a bad person," and McMorris-Santoro said that grudge indicated the president was trying to take over that influential arm of the conservative movement.
"There was a time that Trump was seen as a vessel for another conservative movement," McMorris-Santoro said. "Get him in here, get the federal judges on there, the Federal Society thinks. Now we're looking at a moment with Trump where Trump is like, 'No, I'm the movement, I don't want Federalist Society judges – I want MAGA judges, people are going to do what I want to do.'"
"That is sort of what the Republican Party is dealing with right now is that they got a lot of stuff from Trump," the reporter said, "but now Trump is saying, 'No, but I want stuff,' and that those things don't always sort of align."
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