Donald Trump, who Earlier this month, Trump threatened to jail his political opponents and ratcheted up his authoritarian rhetoric during a campaign rally at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Speaking to supporters in the swing state, where both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have redoubled their efforts to control the election count in November, Trump lamented criticism of the Supreme Court's conservative majority and said it should be “illegal.”
“They were very brave, the Supreme Court. Very brave. And they took a lot of beatings for it,” the former president said. “It should be illegal, what’s going on. You know, you have these people who are playing referee, like the great Bobby Knight. These people should be put in jail for the way they’re talking about our judges and our justices, trying to … influence their vote, influence their decision.”
Trump, who appointed three of the six conservative justices to the Supreme Court, specifically praised the high court for overturning its decision. Roe v. Wade He said abortion would forever be a state issue, not a federal issue, and complained that Democrats were getting annoyed by that. “All they can talk about is abortion,” he said. “That’s all they talk about, and it’s really not relevant anymore.”
“The issue of reproductive freedom is definitely relevant to women across this country, especially as we know that women are losing their lives under Donald Trump’s sweeping abortion ban,” Harris campaign spokeswoman Sarafina Chitica said. He said in a statement after his speech:
The former president also criticized Harris’s support for Supreme Court reform, baselessly claiming that her efforts were an attempt to “rig the system.” The push for reform came after a series of ethics scandals that included some justices failing to disclose lavish gifts—private jet trips, luxury yacht trips, and more—from conservative donors. Trump has claimed that Harris “wants to pack the Supreme Court,” adding up to 16 seats; the vice president has not supported such a policy.
Trump’s comments about jailing critics of judges are consistent with his earlier sentiment that he would be a dictator if reelected but only on “day one” of taking office. His desire to crush any hint of dissent if he were to return to the White House was evident in a post he made on Truth Social in early September, in which he threatened to jail people “engaged in unscrupulous behavior” in this election.
“When I win, those people who cheated will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, including long prison sentences so that this corruption of the judiciary will never happen again,” Trump tweeted. “We cannot allow our country to degenerate into a third world country, and we will not!” Since losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, Trump has blamed his death on false claims of widespread voter fraud — a dangerous rhetoric he has escalated as Election Day approaches.
In July, the Supreme Court granted Trump broad immunity from prosecution stemming from federal criminal charges related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. In a landmark decision, the high court ruled that the former president could not be prosecuted for official acts committed during his presidency. Although its three liberal justices dissented, the six conservative justices, three of whom were appointed by Trump, formed the majority.
In addition to providing Donald Trump blanket immunity from prosecution and eliminating federal protections for abortion rights, the nation’s highest court has in recent years struck down climate protections, limited protections for LGBTQ+ Americans, ended affirmative action policies at colleges, and allowed corporations to make thank-you payments to corrupt politicians.
