Trump Labels Justice Jackson ‘Low IQ’ in Latest Court Attack (2)

President Donald Trump disparaged Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as the “new, Low IQ person” while renewing attacks against the US Supreme Court that have grown more frequent since it struck down the bulk of his global tariffs.

While Trump didn’t name Jackson, the reference appeared clear given that he associated her with President Joe Biden, who nominated her to the court in 2022.

Trump used the “low IQ” label for Jackson, the first and only Black woman on the bench, in a Wednesday Truth Social post that re-upped complaints about the conservative-dominated court’s 6-3 decision invalidating his tariffs.

He also voiced outrage over the skepticism most of the justices showed during oral arguments this month about the legality of his order seeking to end automatic birthright citizenship.

“How can the Democrats not like how the U.S. Supreme Court votes,” Trump said, claiming the three liberals “stick together like glue, NEVER failing to wander from the warped and perverse policies, ideas, and cases put before them. They ALWAYS vote as a group, or BLOCK, even that new, Low IQ person, that somehow found her way to the bench (Sleepy Joe!).”

Jackson Resume

Jackson replaced liberal Justice Stephen Breyer on the high court after a short stint on the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. A Harvard College and Harvard Law School graduate, Jackson clerked for Breyer and also served as a district judge in Washington from 2013 until 2021.

As the junior justice, she’s become a sharp critic of the court’s frequent emergency rulings granting temporary relief to the Trump administration.

She also was the lone dissenter last month in a merits decision that found a Colorado law barring conversion therapy for minors probably violated the free speech rights of a licensed therapist.

Trump has attacked numerous Black female public figures over the years, including New York attorney general Letitia James and Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis, each of whom led investigations of the president.

His latest comments on Jackson also fit a pattern of how his second administration communicates its views about people of color in position of authority, said New York University law professor Melissa Murray.

“They seem to go beyond generalized grievances about his disagreement with their rulings or his view that they are against him,” Murray said. “Those seem to be part and parcel of his administration’s effort to tag any person of color with the label of DEI hire, unqualified, unprepared.”

“Most people, especially in the context of Justice Jackson, find it laughable,” she added. “She is so obviously well-prepared and qualified.”

‘Weak, stupid, and bad’

Trump’s also targeted certain conservative justices in increasingly personal terms since the court ruled against him in the tariffs case. Soon after the ruling, he said the three conservatives who joined the liberals—Chief Justice John Roberts and Trump appointees Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett—were “an embarrassment to their families.”

In Wednesday’s post, he added that “certain ‘Republican’ Justices have just gone weak, stupid, and bad, completely violating what they ‘supposedly’ stood for.”

His complaints come as he said he prepares for another loss in a blockbuster case affecting his administration. Trump complained about the “nasty, one sided questions” from arguments over his birthright citizenship order that he attended earlier this month—a move that marked the first time a sitting US president attended oral arguments at the court.

Trump didn’t stay for the entire session, leaving shortly after the justices wrapped up questioning of US solicitor general John Sauer. In a separate Tuesday night post, Trump said that “based on the questioning by Republican Nominated Justices that I watched firsthand in the Court, we lose.”

Since the tariffs ruling, Roberts hasn’t offered any direct response to Trump’s attacks. But in public remarks made in March, he did say that personal attacks on judges were creating a dangerous environment.