Courts

Attention Donald Trump: If You Put Amy Coney Barrett On The Supreme Court, Republicans Will Turn On You Fast

This guy is getting played like a chump by Mitch McConnell and it would be hilarious if it weren't so tragic.

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(Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Assuming Donald Trump pulls off the incredible and easily wins this election, Republicans will certainly continue to dutifully stand by him. But taking a break from fairy tale land, Trump’s current bid for reelection seems to hinge on discrediting the electoral process and hoping the right-wing of the Supreme Court and Senate Republicans will bail him out somehow. Stop some ballot counts halfway through here, refuse to certify electoral college votes received there, and pretty soon an incumbent can cobble together a hacked election.

Far be it from me to offer Trump any sage advice, but seriously man, you’re getting played on this whole Supreme Court thing.

Right-wing media outlets are already running with the talking point that Amy Coney Barrett must be confirmed before the election in order to rule on the next Florida 2000 scenario (a case she worked on as a lawyer, of course!). This facially makes no sense since there’s already a conservative majority on the Court, thus making another confirmation irrelevant. However this isn’t about making sense, it’s just bait placed right where Trump can see it and parrot it on Twitter. Conservatives don’t want this confirmation done before the election because they think it helps him win, they want it done so they can stop having to deal with him.

Rewire’s Imani Gandy put it exactly right on Twitter this morning: those thorns in Trump’s political side over at The Lincoln Project are very quiet about this power grab because fundamentally The Lincoln Project still revels in the idea of a right-wing, anti-majoritarian Court blocking popular calls for expanded rights and business regulation, they’re just fed up with Trump’s antics. And that’s a sliding scale that all Republicans are on, and in Amy Coney Barrett, many that still publicly side with him are seeing the end of the slide approaching rapidly.

Handing the Republicans a 6-3 majority for the foreseeable future with only two conservatives in their early 70s all but wraps up a job well done for Trump in their eyes. Why stick their necks out for a guy imperiling their national brand any longer if he’s already delivered everything they can possibly hope for? Especially if this results in Democrats pursuing a court expansion plan that can set the stage for the next Republican president to cement right-wing domination for a generation.

The smartest move Trump could’ve made is to say that Coney Barrett was who he will be sending to the Senate after the election and telling the Lincoln Project dissenters of the world to get back on the train or they’ll get nothing. Trump’s diminishing hopes of reelection rest on turning out the “independents” who are really Republicans that just won’t say it out loud and who have mostly grown disillusioned with Trump’s nonsense. In other words, the exact type of FedSoc conservative who just wants a more civilized assault on the Clean Air Act.

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Given that audience, Trump should’ve taken a lesson from former Celebrity Apprentice Rod Blagojevich and realize that:

It’s a fucking valuable thing, you just don’t give it away for nothing.

Ah, the apprentice becomes the master.

Yet, this is apparently what Trump’s decided to do. Hence the marketing pitch on Fox trying to assure him indirectly that this is really not a no-strings gift to Republicans, but something he needs to do to win the election even though the Court already has a 5-3 conservative majority. And it seems to be working because Trump has opted for a strategy of “give them everything they ask for with no guaranteed return.” Not exactly something you’d expect from a guy with a book unironically titled The Art of the Deal.

On the other hand, it’s exactly what you’d expect from someone carrying over $400 million in debt.

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HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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