FOR INSIDERS | The Gavel: Trump sees victory in mixed Supreme Court results

To President Trump, one victory at the Supreme Court this week mattered more than any of his defeats. 

“The biggest and most consequential Decision issued by the Court, by far, is the Slaughter Case,” Trump wrote Tuesady on Truth Social. 

It’s clear Trump isn’t happy about losing birthright citizenship. But a major ruling expanding his firing power at independent agencies seemed to mask some of the sting. 

Shortly after the final decisions came in, Trump laid out his conclusion for the term: 

 “The Republican Party was treated very fairly by the United States Supreme Court,” he said. 

It leaves Trump and the Supreme Court on seemingly better terms compared to just a few months ago, when the president levied his most searing criticisms of the court after it struck down his global tariffs. 

After that decision, Trump called out by name two of his appointees who ruled against him, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, while singing praises on Justice Brett Kavanaugh for voting with him. 

That wasn’t the case this week, as the shoe was on the other foot.  

Kavanaugh voted to block Trump’s birthright citizenship order, and one day earlier, he provided a crucial vote to halt Trump’s firing of Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook.  

Still, no anti-Kavanaugh Truth Social post has come.   

“The Supreme Court upheld Birthright Citizenship, which is too bad for our Country, but we can easily make it up in Congress through Legislation, with the support of the President,” the president wrote instead.  

But Trump is mistaken. Even though Kavanaugh only blocked Trump’s order on statutory grounds, five of his colleagues found it’s also unconstitutional. That means, to change the status quo, it would take a constitutional amendment or convincing the high court to overrule its decision. 

As for some of his other losses, Trump similarly cast those as mere bumps in the road. 

After the high court ruled 5-4 that the president couldn’t immediately fire Cook, handing Trump a loss in his efforts to remake the Federal Reserve, Trump said the decision was on a “strictly procedural basis.” 

There, Trump is right. The court’s decision says Cook was entitled to more process to contest the mortgage fraud accusations against her, which she denies, before the president removes her. 

It leaves unresolved the ultimate question of whether Trump will be able to ultimately fire her from the central bank. 

“We will take appropriate action immediately to make sure that someone who has committed wrongdoing will not be making vital decisions concerning the Welfare of the United States of America!” Trump wrote. 

For Trump, all those cases paled in comparison to his win on independent agencies. 

The 6-3 decision overturned nearly a century of precedent allowing Congress to shield certain executive branch officials with firing protections. The conservative majority ruled Trump has inherent constitutional authority to terminate them for nearly any reason. 

“It is such an Honor to be the sitting President who won this Historic and Unprecedented Ruling, one of the most........

© The Hill