In Bizarre Rant, Trump Rips ‘Sleazebag' Leonard Leo Over Legal Setback On Tariffs
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump late Thursday bizarrely tore into a prominent figure of the conservative legal movement, Leonard Leo, and blamed him for a federal court ruling that briefly blocked most of his tariffs.
Trump leaned heavily on Leo, a former leader of the conservative Federal Society, in his first term in office for picking people for lifetime federal judgeships. Trump essentially farmed out his judicial selection process to Leo, who handpicked most of the president's appeals court and Supreme Court nominees.
That list included judges Trump eventually picked to sit on the U.S. Court of International Trade — judges who ruled Thursday that he didn't have unilateral authority to impose tariffs on most countries — a huge setback to Trump's international economic policy. The president responded by lashing out at Leo for recommending he nominate those judges at all, years ago. (The full court later weighed in and reversed that decision.)
'I was new to Washington, and it was suggested that I use The Federalist Society as a recommending source on Judges,' Trump said in a rambling post on social media. 'I did so, openly and freely, but then realized that they were under the thumb of a real 'sleazebag' named Leonard Leo, a bad person who, in his own way, probably hates America, and obviously has his own separate ambitions.'
The president said Leo 'openly brags how he controls Judges, and even Justices of the United States Supreme Court.'
'I hope that is not so, and don't believe it is!' he continued. 'In any event, Leo left The Federalist Society to do his own 'thing.''
Leo responded with a conciliatory statement in the New York Post, saying he is 'grateful' that Trump transformed the courts in his first term.
'The Federal Judiciary is better than it's ever been in modern history, and that will be President Trump's most important legacy,' he said.
Their spat reflects a growing divide between Trump and the conservative legal community that was so central to his judicial nominees in his first term.
Trump doesn't have nearly as many vacant court seats to fill this time around, which means there's been less energy being poured into nominating judges. But the bigger issue is that Trump is more unhinged in his second term, flouting laws and brazenly attacking judges who rule against him. He's been pushing the limits of executive power to a breaking point, and with the Republican-led Congress doing nothing to keep him in check, it's fallen on the nation's courts to field endless lawsuits against the administration.
The reality for Trump is that he is losing a lot more in court that he's winning. One analysis found that his administration has lost a whopping 96% of rulings in federal district courts so far this month. It's left Trump fuming, as heseems to believe judges should rule in his favor every time. Leo is simply the latest target of his fury amid his legal setbacks.
'Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society have spent decades installing judges to do their bidding from the bench. But anything short of 100% loyalty is unacceptable to Donald Trump, so it's no surprise that he's lashing out,' Meagan Hatcher-Mays of United for Democracy, a coalition of pro-democracy organizations, said in a statement.
'Trump thinks there's no limit to what he is able to get away with, because most of the time, there's not,' she said.
The president's attacks on Leo and The Federalist Society could get interesting, though. Leo has helped pick all of the current conservative Supreme Court justices, arguably making him more powerful than any one of them. He is at the center of a massive web of sketchy, dark-monied groups aligned with a staunchly anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-voting rights agenda. A far-right member of the Roman Catholic Church, his goal is to impose a broader cultural war against a 'progressive Ku Klux Klan' and 'vile and immoral current-day barbarians, secularists and bigots.'
Leo is managing more than $1.6 billion, which he has been using to expand The Federalist Society model beyond the courts, and into culture and politics.
In other words, Leo has been playing the long game and Trump, in his first term, was always a pawn for Leo's broader ambitions. The conservative legal activist was here before Trump was in the White House, and he will be here after he is gone.
In his meandering social post, the president said The Federalist Society let him down with its recommendations for judicial nominees in his first term.
'I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations. This is something that cannot be forgotten!' he said. 'With all of that being said, I am very proud of many of our picks, but very disappointed in others. They always must do what's right for the Country!'
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