Trump Says 2 Supreme Court Justices He Appointed ‘Sicken Me’: ‘They’re Bad for Our Country’

President Donald Trump intensified his rhetorical assault on the U.S. Supreme Court this week, specifically targeting his own appointees, Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch, for their roles in a landmark ruling that dismantled his administration’s unilateral tariff strategy.

Speaking at a House GOP fundraiser on Wednesday, March 25, Trump told a room of Republican lawmakers—including Speaker Mike Johnson—that Barrett and Gorsuch “sicken me” and are “bad for our country.” The comments follow a pivotal February decision in which the two conservative justices joined Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s three liberals to block Trump’s plan to impose sweeping import taxes without congressional approval.

The February ruling fractured the court’s 6-3 conservative supermajority, creating a rare alignment that limited executive overreach in global trade. While Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas sided with the administration, the majority opinion held that the President lacks the constitutional authority to bypass Congress for such broad economic maneuvers.

Trump, who has long utilized tariffs as a central tool for foreign policy and trade negotiations, claimed the ruling cost the United States “hundreds of billions of dollars.”

“Two of the people that voted for that, I appointed, and they sicken me,” Trump said during the fundraiser. “They sicken me because they’re bad for our country… they couldn’t care less.”

The President’s recent vitriol marks an escalation in his long-standing habit of criticizing the judiciary. On social media, Trump characterized the Supreme Court as a “weaponized and unjust Political Organization” and accused his appointees of making “wrongful rulings” simply to prove their independence.

During an Oval Office event last week, Trump mocked the justices, suggesting they are overcompensating to avoid looking biased.

“‘If Donald Trump appointed me, I’m going to show the world that I can be totally just and I can be independent,’” Trump said, mimicking a justice. “I don’t want to control them. I just want to have smart decisions.”

Trump further disparaged the dissenting justices as “unpatriotic” and “lapdogs” for his political opponents, while praising Kavanaugh, Alito, and Thomas for their “strength and wisdom.”

The escalating tension has drawn a rare response from the high court’s leadership. Speaking at Rice University in Houston last week, Chief Justice John Roberts addressed the rising tide of judicial criticism. While Roberts did not name Trump directly, he warned that the nature of the attacks has shifted from legal debate to personal vitriol.

“The problem sometimes is that the criticism can move from a focus on legal analysis to personalities,” Roberts told the audience. “Personally directed hostility is dangerous, and it’s got to stop.”

Despite the Chief Justice’s plea, Trump has vowed to find new ways to implement his “country-saving” tariffs, signaling a continued constitutional showdown between the executive branch and the nation’s highest court.