Trump Slams His Supreme Court Appointees Over Mail-In Voting Decision - Newsweek

President Donald Trump lashed out at the Supreme Court after it blocked his administration's mail-ballot restrictions ahead of the 2026 midterms, criticizing the justices he appointed and suggesting they had abandoned the principles that led him to select them.

In a lengthy social media post, Trump wrote that the court “is bullied and cajoled by the Radical Left” and accused justices who opposed him of becoming “a shell of their original selves.” He singled out conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas—the only dissenters—as “legends,” while blasting the rest of the Court for issuing what he called a “highly political” ruling.

“These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court,” he wrote, adding that the decision “will go down, in a very negative way, in the annals of History.”

In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote: "Republicans just got another bad decision from the United States Supreme Court, one that the Court System took forever to give, and then blamed it, in part, on no time left to implement a solution to our totally CORRUPT and out of control Mail-In voting 'disaster,' which is a laughing stock all over the World, and where we are the only country that has to endure such a Nation Destroying SCAM.

"Justices Alito and Thomas, legends both, strongly disagreed with this horrible, highly political, ruling. It is a big loss for Republicans, and America itself, and makes cheating by the Radical Left 'Dumocrats,' on Mail-In Ballots, a much easier thing to do - And now they have an open field to do so! The Supreme Court has really let our Country down!

"Certain Justices are petrified of these crazed and depraved Democrats, and are totally unable to show the courage necessary to save our America. Their horrible decision on Tariffs will be costing the U.S.A., for many years to come, Trillions and Trillions of Dollars. They didn’t even state, 'money paid does not have to be paid back,' much to the benefit of entities that truly hate our Country, and have been RIPPING IT OFF FOR YEARS, unnecessarily costing us, immediately, Billions of Dollars.

"Likewise, the Supreme Court’s Decision on Birthright Citizenship is a complete and total disaster for America, and has already led to massive corruption with respect to 'citizenship' in our Country. The damage done to America is incalculable, and they know this, just as everyone else does - It is an irreparable and unrecoverable harm! 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.

"This Supreme Court is bullied and cajoled by the Radical Left into making decisions that have set America back at least a hundred years. These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves, a Court that is costing the United States Trillions of Dollars with shockingly bad rulings that are of such magnitude that it won’t be easily possible for our Country to recover or heal.

"It is a Court that will go down as having rendered some of the most destructive, hurtful, and damaging decisions in our Country’s history. It is not easy for me to write this criticism of the United States Supreme Court - it will likely cost me dearly for years to come - but I feel it my obligation and duty, as President, to do so for the America we love!"

The court’s unsigned order halted Trump’s March executive directive, which sought to require the U.S. Postal Service to deliver ballots only to voters listed on new federally compiled “State Citizenship Lists.” The order also instructed USPS to redesign ballot envelopes and impose new barcode‑tracking requirements.

Election officials argued the changes were impossible to implement this close to November. Ballots had already gone out in North Carolina, Delaware, and Alabama, and other states had printed materials they could not redesign without restarting the process.

Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia sued to block the order, warning it would prevent ballots from reaching eligible voters. In Cherokee County, Georgia, election director Anne Dover said the changes would have resulted in “thousands of people disenfranchised,” according to the BBC.

Republican-led states including Florida, Louisiana, and Montana supported Trump’s plan, arguing that the USPS had broad authority to regulate mail.

Still, seven GOP election officials warned the court that implementing major changes so close to Election Day would “lead to mistakes, delays, and confusion.”

While the court did not rule on the full legality of Trump’s order, the majority wrote that the administration was “unlikely to succeed on the merits.”

The U.S. Constitution gives states and Congress, through legislation, authority over election administration. The executive branch has no such power, a design intended to prevent presidents from influencing the process that determines their own political fate.

Trump’s directive would have allowed federal agencies to override state voter rolls by requiring USPS to rely on federal citizenship lists. Critics argued this could block eligible voters from receiving ballots if federal databases contained errors.

The order also instructed the Justice Department to “prioritize the investigation and, as appropriate, the prosecution” of state and local officials who issued ballots to individuals not on federal lists, a provision challengers said amounted to federal intrusion into state-run elections.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative Trump appointee who joined the majority, wrote that “local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections.” He added that applying the rule in 2026 “would be arbitrary and capricious.”

Alito and Thomas dissented, calling the challenge to Trump’s order a “Hail Mary pass” and writing that “the Postal Service has broad authority to regulate the mail.”

State officials are proceeding under current systems while continuing to draft contingency plans in case future rulings disrupt ballot processing. Legal challenges continue in multiple federal courts. Judge Indira Talwani in Boston imposed an injunction on September 4, blocking Trump’s order, ruling that implementing the measures so close to November “could disenfranchise voters.”

Last week, a U.S. appeals court refused to stay Talwani's order. On Sunday, Judge Carl Nichols also ruled against Trump’s order.

Legal groups praised the Supreme Court’s intervention. “Today’s Supreme Court decision prevents the U.S. Postal Service from sowing chaos in our elections,” Trevor Potter, president of the Campaign Legal Center, said in a statement.

Trump could attempt to revive the plan for the 2028 presidential election, when states would have more time to adjust systems. But the court’s early signal that the executive order is likely unconstitutional poses a significant obstacle.

For now, the most sweeping federal attempt to reshape mail‑in voting ahead of the midterms has been halted, and Trump’s public rupture with his own Supreme Court appointees adds a volatile new dimension to an already contentious election season.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Sam Wilson.