Trump attacks birthright citizenship after attending Supreme Court arguments

WASHINGTON — President Trump attended oral arguments at the Supreme Court on Wednesday in the closely watched birthright citizenship case, becoming the first sitting president to be present for such proceedings.

He arrived via presidential limousine shortly before the 10 a.m. hearing, accompanied by Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, and departed before the arguments concluded. Soon after, he attacked birthright citizenship in a Truth Social post.

“We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship!” he wrote.

Seated in the front row of the public gallery, he observed the Supreme Court justices he has criticized almost daily since they ruled against his tariffs agenda in February. His order to limit automatic citizenship for children born to non-native parents, another marquee campaign promise, was met with skepticism from the justices.

In Oval Office comments and social media posts this week, Trump had assailed justices appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents.

“Dumb Judges and Justices will not a great Country make!” the president wrote on Truth Social on Monday.

He previously teased a similar visit at the nation’s highest court when they were set to deliberate on his tariffs policy, but ultimately did not attend.

U.S. presidents have historically stayed away from Supreme Court proceedings. The unwritten tradition is meant to preserve the separation between government branches, and to prevent a president from pressuring the court to rule in their favor.

Trump’s appearance highlights how high he believes the stakes are, according to Adam Winkler, a constitutional law professor at UCLA.

“It’s not clear why Trump is attending,” Winkler said. “Maybe he is just interested in the unusual drama of a Supreme Court argument. Or perhaps he is trying to intimidate the justices, like the scene in ‘The Godfather Part II’ where the mob boss shows up at a hearing to scare the witness into recanting his testimony.”

Regardless, his presence probably wouldn’t change any minds on the bench, Winkler said, noting that the justices prize their independence, including many who share Trump’s judicial philosophy.

The birthright citizenship order, which Trump signed on the first day of his second term, is a keystone of his administration’s broad immigration crackdown.

Trump has framed the policy as a necessary step to curb what he describes as abuse of the immigration system, an issue he calls “birth tourism.”

“Birthright Citizenship is not about rich people from China, and the rest of the World, who want their children, and hundreds of thousands more, FOR PAY, to ridiculously become citizens of the United States of America. It is about the BABIES OF SLAVES!” he wrote on Truth Social.

At the hearing, Trump sat through arguments from his Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer, who encountered headwinds from conservative and liberal judges on the bench.

He left shortly after Cecillia Wang, national legal director for the ACLU and lead attorney for the plaintiffs, stood up and began addressing the court.

“I could see by the way his shoulders slumped … that he knew he had a losing case,” ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said.

Romero insisted the Supreme Court is up to the task of interpreting and defending the Constitution “even under the glare” of a sitting president a couple dozen feet away from them.

He argued that the case constitutes one of the most important the court has heard in the last hundred years. In Romero’s assessment, Trump turned up Wednesday morning to try to put his thumb on the scale in an effort to influence the justices, three of whom he appointed.

“I dare say that did not work,” Romero said.