Majority of Supreme Court Justices Skip Trump’s State of the Union After He Called Them a ‘Disgrace to Our Nation’

YOU NEED TO KNOW

• President Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address on Feb. 24 and called the Supreme Court’s recent ruling against the tariff plan “very unfortunate.”

• The criticism came just days after Trump called the judges who rejected his tariff plan “an embarrassment to our nation.”

• Only four of nine Supreme Court justices attended the speech

Minister Donald Trump He blasted the Supreme Court in their faces in his State of the Union speech. final decision against tariff plan.

The President made some harsh statements towards members of the Supreme Court in his speech at the US Capitol on Tuesday, February 24. Only four justices were present — Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — but that didn’t stop Trump from criticizing the court as a whole for its decisions.

“This was an unfortunate decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, a very unfortunate decision,” Trump said as the four justices present sat in the front row.

Statements came 4 days later Supreme Court voted 6-3 Eliminating import taxes has been one of Trump’s most prominent policies so far in his second term.

The Supreme Court ruled last week that the president exceeded his authority When the United States invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 and imposed unprecedented tariffs on imports from nearly every trading partner.

But as he did during the decision, Trump promised that he planned to keep the tariffs in place, but not by using IEEPA.

“Almost all countries and companies want to keep the agreement they have already made, knowing that the legal power I have as president could be much worse for them,” he said. “There will be no need for congressional action… We finally have a president who puts America first.”

Trump’s announcement of tariffs called “” on April 2, 2025Independence Day,“He explained that a 10% base duty is imposed on most imports to the United States, with some countries moving towards higher tariffs if they do not participate in trade negotiations, Time reported. Many countries retaliated by increasing taxes on US goods, causing the stock market to crash.

The morning the SCOTUS decision that struck down that plan was announced, Trump was hosting a breakfast with governors from around the country.

Although CNN’s Kaitlan Collins kicked out White House press members shortly after entering the room reported thisAt the closed-door meeting, the president called the Supreme Court’s decision a “disgrace” and assured the assembled governors that he “had a backup plan.”

Later in the day, Trump spoke to the press, calling the decision “deeply disappointing.”

“I am absolutely ashamed that some members of the Court did not have the courage to do what was right for our country,” Trump, 79, said. “When you read the opposing views, there’s no way anyone can disagree with them.”

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The president praised the three dissenting justices — Kavanaugh, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas — but called those who voted for the majority “an embarrassment to our nation.”

He reserved his harshest insults for Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch, two Trump officials who voted against his tariffs, calling them “an embarrassment to their families.”

“In my view, the court was manipulated by foreign interests,” he continued. “It’s almost like [the decision was] Written by not very smart people.”

Five of the nine Supreme Court justices skipped Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address: Republican-appointed justices Alito, Thomas and Gorsuch, and Democratic-appointed justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

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