At a rally in Pennsylvania last September, Donald Trump warned that Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent in the presidential election, "wants to pack the Supreme Court…so she can rig the system." Alluding to the June 2022 decision in which the Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Trump said the justices "were very brave" and "take a lot of hits because of it," which he said "should be illegal." He complained that the Court's critics "are playing the ref" and said they "should be put in jail" because of "the way they talk about our judges and our justices, trying to…sway their decision."
This was not the first time Trump had defended the Supreme Court against its Democratic critics. "The Radical Left Democrats are desperately trying to 'Play the Ref' by calling for an illegal and unConstitutional attack on our SACRED United States Supreme Court," he wrote on Truth Social in July, emphasizing the importance of "Fair and Independent Courts."
