Trump’s Supreme Court Appearance Goes Unmentioned by Justices

Donald Trump made history as the first sitting president to attend a Supreme Court oral argument, in a milestone that went unacknowledged verbally by the justices.

None of the justices made note of Trump’s presence during two-plus hours of arguments Wednesday regarding the legality of his order ending automatic birthright citizenship.

Trump arrived shortly before arguments began, taking a seat in the front row of the public gallery, behind a section reserved for counsel and members of the bar, where he was joined by Attorney General Pam Bondi and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

He witnessed his three appointees join the skeptical questioning of US Solicitor General John Sauer, who argued in favor of ending citizenship for the children of people in the US illegally or temporary visa holders.

Trump left the courtroom during the second hour of arguments, shortly after the ACLU’s Cecillia Wang stood at the lectern to argue for birthright citizenship’s constitutionality.

It didn’t take Trump long to share his views of the argument after heading back to the White House. “We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright Citizenship!’,” he wrote in Truth Social post an hour after leaving the court.

His appearance followed weeks of leveling attacks at the court and the conservative justices who joined in a 6-3 ruling in February that struck down the bulk of his tariffs. Trump called them “lapdogs,” “disloyal to our Constitution,” and “an embarrassment to their families.”

Trump first suggested he’d attend a Supreme Court argument last fall as the justices agreed to hear arguments in the case challenging his use of an emergency law to issue tariffs.

In 1969, then-President Richard Nixon addressed the court to mark the occasion of the retirement of Chief Justice Earl Warren. But prior to Wednesday, there was no record of a sitting president ever appearing for arguments during its 200-plus years of operations.

Trump and some of his top allies have repeatedly attacked judges over unfavorable rulings, and the president has turned much of his ire on the Supreme Court in the weeks since its tariffs ruling.

In mid-March, Chief Justice John Roberts spoke out against “personally directed hostility.” While his public remarks didn’t mention Trump and weren’t in reference to “any one political perspective,” Roberts said it was creating a a dangerous environment.

Others in attendance at the argument Wednesday included California attorney general Rob Bonta (D), who was part of a coalition of states who last year sued over Trump’s order.

John Eastman, a figure central to Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election, also was in the audience.

Eastman submitted a brief to the Supreme Court in 2004 claiming the current understanding of the citizenship clause is incorrect.