Ask Jordan: What will Trump do if he loses the birthright citizenship case at SCOTUS?

“What do you think Donald Trump might do if the Supreme Court doesn’t side with him on birthright citizenship?” — Eduardo

This Video Is Trending Right Now →

Hi Eduardo,

If the president’s reaction to his tariffs loss earlier this year is any indication, then he will complain about how bad he thinks it is for the country while calling the justices who rule against him cowards, disgraces, traitors and embarrassments to their families.

We will likely find out soon. The court usually issues the term’s final rulings by July. The next batch is set for Thursday morning, but the court doesn’t announce ahead of time which cases or how many are coming.

The justices’ questions and comments at the April hearing in the birthright citizenship case strongly suggested Trump will lose like he did in the tariffs case — and quite possibly by a wider margin than the 6-3 tariffs ruling. In a sign of the citizenship case’s importance to him, Trump attended the hearing, in an apparent first for a sitting president. That means he saw for himself the court’s tepid response to his bid to single-handedly redefine U.S. citizenship in the face of the Constitution, federal law and more than 100 years of precedent.

In a Truth Social post after the hearing, the president continued to complain about his tariffs loss while looking ahead to his likely citizenship loss. He called the tariffs defeat “an unnecessary and expensive slap in the face to the U.S.A., and a giant victory for its opponents.” He continued, “If they rule against our Country on Birthright Citizenship, which they probably will, it will be even worse, if that’s possible.” Striking down his executive order that attempts to end automatic citizenship for babies born in the U.S., he wrote, would “cost America its DIGNITY!”

As we await the citizenship ruling, keep in mind that there are important legal differences between that case and the tariffs case that could make the president even angrier if he loses the citizenship case.