Trump Turns on Conservative Group’s ‘Sleazebag’ Leader Who Recommended Judges: ‘Probably Hates America’

AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

President Donald Trump laid into the conservative Federalist Society and its “sleazebag” chairman of the board Leonard Leo on Thursday, accusing him of “probably hating America.”

“The U.S. Court of International Trade incredibly ruled against the United States of America on desperately needed Tariffs but, fortunately, the full 11 Judge Panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Court has just stayed the order by the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade,” wrote Trump in a Truth Social post on Thursday evening:

Where do these initial three Judges come from? How is it possible for them to have potentially done such damage to the United States of America? Is it purely a hatred of “TRUMP?” What other reason could it be? I was new to Washington, and it was suggested that I use The Federalist Society as a recommending source on Judges. I did so, openly and freely, but then realized that they were under the thumb of a real “sleazebag” named Leonard Leo, a bad person who, in his own way, probably hates America, and obviously has his own separate ambitions. He openly brags how he controls Judges, and even Justices of the United States Supreme Court — I hope that is not so, and don’t believe it is! In any event, Leo left The Federalist Society to do his own “thing.” I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations. This is something that cannot be forgotten!

Trump went on to say that while he was “very proud of many of our picks,” he was “very disappointed in others,” before concluding, “Backroom ‘hustlers’ must not be allowed to destroy our Nation!”

Leo – who previously served as the vice president of the Federalist Society and currently serves as the organization’s co-chairman of the board – reportedly played a major role in the nomination and confirmation of several associate justices to the Supreme Court during Trump’s first term in the White House, including Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.

“This guy is, like, responsible for a third of the Supreme Court,” said CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin in 2017, before the addition of both Kavanaugh and Barrett. “There’s no president at the moment who’s responsible for a third of the Supreme Court. The most any recent president has had is two nominations. I mean, to me, it was just extraordinary that a person, much less someone who never worked for the government, could claim this.”

Toobin continued, “I don’t want to overstate the case. He’s not, like, singlehandedly responsible for a third of the Supreme Court. But if you look at anyone else, there’s no one else with anywhere close to that level of influence. And I think it’s indicative of where the Republican Party is, which is aligned at the hip with The Federalist Society when it comes to judicial appointments.”