WASHINGTON (AFP) – When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, some evangelical Christians turned their noses up at his liberal lifestyle and manners with the belief that he would be a champion on their key battlefield – the judiciary.
His bets paid off. Trump is no longer in power, but his nomination has pushed America’s Christian right to its holy grail—the Supreme Court overturning the nationwide right to abortion.
If there is one point of unanimity among Trump’s supporters and critics inside and outside the Republican Party, it is that reshaping the judiciary will be one of his most enduring legacies.
Trump was able to nominate three Supreme Court justices, or a third, over his four-year term—all of whom sided with the majority on Friday in striking down the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
Trump – who in 1999, as a celebrity realtor sparring with politics, called himself “very pro-choice” – said in a statement that the landmark decision “was only possible because I promised everything.”
Asked in a Fox News interview whether he deserves the credit, Trump, who rarely attends church and is rarely known for his humility, said, “God made the decision.”
Roe v. on June 24, 2022 in Portland, Oregon (Matthew Lewis-Roland / Getty Images North America / Getty Images via AFP) People gather to protest the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Wade.
Mary Frances Berry, a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, said that, with the relative youth of her appointment, Trump is likely to have an lasting legacy on the courts for years to come.
“One thing we know about Trump is that even though some of the promises he makes are outrageous, he usually tries to keep his promises – unlike many politicians.”
The decision comes at a crucial moment for Trump, who recently slipped a poll of Republicans as he contemplates a 2024 rematch against US President Joe Biden. Trump has come under new scrutiny in a congressional hearing over his attempts to stay in power after his defeat, which culminated in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, an evangelist who recently supported a rival candidate in a major primary, wrote to Trump on Twitter that “historians will write about you.”
“Americans, born and unborn, will benefit for decades,” Pompeo said.
a ‘transaction’
Caleb Verbois, a political scientist at Grove City College, a conservative Christian institution in Pennsylvania, said that after the abortion decision he received a text message from a friend that said, “My dealings with Trump are finally done.” Is.”
“If you’re a strong political conservative, I think it’s undeniable that the three most important things were his three Supreme Court nominations,” Verbois said.
On his legacy, decades later “You’re going to remember four years of devastation and social media uproar and January 6th — and then you’re going to remember it.”
Trump took the unprecedented step during his 2016 campaign to release a list of people he would nominate to the Supreme Court after initially struggling to bolster support among church-going evangelical Republicans.
Abortion rights activists protest after the US Supreme Court dismissed Roe v. Wade, reversing abortion rights on June 24, 2022 in Portland, Oregon (John Rudoff / AFP)
“He didn’t like Trump’s personality, he didn’t like his language, he didn’t like his attitude. But he said, it’s fair because of the court,” Verbois said.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell – who has worked with the former president notably over January 6 – worked closely with the Trump White House to sift through court picks that require confirmation by the Senate.
Trump’s first Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch was nominated after McConnell broke precedent by preventing then-President Barack Obama from filling the vacant seat.
Example: Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, right, and Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, left, before US President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, February 4, 2020 Arrive. (Leah Millis/Pools via AP)
Trump’s second justice, Brett Kavanaugh, escaped sexual assault charges and his third, Amy Connie Barrett, was confirmed just a month after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an icon of the Left and a committed defender of abortion rights.
Galvanizing resist?
Federal judges serve for life and Trump, by virtue of fortunate timing and unity in the Republican Senate, was able to name an unusually large number of judges — calls for court reform, but no action.
In four years, Trump filled 28 percent of the available seats on the federal bench, almost as much as Obama had elected to two positions, which were able to elect only two Supreme Court justices.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, blamed Trump and McConnell for a decision that gives American women “less freedom than their mothers” in 2022 and, like Biden, on abortion in November’s congressional elections. vowed to campaign.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during a news conference at the Capitol on June 24, 2022 in Washington, Roe v. Reacted to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Wade. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Some Democrats lamented that the abortion decision proved the elections had results and the party was very satisfied in 2016 when Trump narrowly defeated Hillary Clinton.
But Mark Baer, a former chief of staff to Democratic senator and chairman of Bayer Strategic Consulting, said the decision could spur opposition.
“Donald Trump may be hoping for political gains, but this disastrous decision will also energize voters across the political spectrum who support women’s rights,” Baer said.
