A president versus his court

Trump attacked the Supreme Court on Tuesday after it rejected his push to restrict mail-in voting for this year's midterms. He said the justices who ruled against him were not who he thought he picked.

“These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court”

What he actually wanted

The administration made a last-minute push to put the U.S. Postal Service at the center of deciding who could receive a ballot, weeks before voting.

States said no time

Election officials argued there was no way to rewire their systems before the Nov. 3 midterms, and that what they already run is secure and accurate.

The court ruled Monday night

In an emergency order, the justices found the restrictions would most likely lose in court, at least for this election. Alito and Thomas publicly dissented.

“The Court's inability and unwillingness to do the right thing for our Country will go down, in a very negative way, in the annals of History”

A pattern, not a one-off

Trump has gone after judges before, including Gorsuch, Barrett and Kavanaugh, the three justices he nominated. He praises them when they side with him and attacks them when they don't.

This court has delivered for him

The Roberts court handed Trump the 2024 ruling that former presidents are presumptively immune for official acts, clearing his path to run for reelection without a criminal trial.

The fraud claim doesn't hold

Trump has falsely blamed mail voting for his 2020 loss. A 2025 Brookings report found fraud in about four cases per 10 million mail ballots. Roughly a third of voters use them.