From friends to foes: how Trump turned on the Federalist Society

[Jilly_in_VA]

The world’s attention last week was gripped by Donald Trump’s abrupt fallout with the tech tycoon Elon Musk. Yet at the same time, and with the help of a rather unflattering epithet, the president has also stoked a rift between his Maga royal court and the conservative legal movement whose judges and lawyers have been crucial in pulling the US judiciary to the right.

The word was “sleazebag”, which Trump deployed as part of a lengthy broadside on Truth Social, his social media platform. The targets of his wrath were the Federalist Society, an influential conservative legal organization, and Leonard Leo, a lawyer associated with the group who has, in recent years, branched out to become one of the most powerful rightwing kingmakers in the US.

In his post, Trump said that during his first term “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!”

Founded in 1982, the Federalist Society is an important player in the conservative movement. Many conservative lawyers, judges, law students and law clerks are members of the group, attend its events or run in its general orbit. Republican presidents use its recommendations to pick judges for vacant judicial seats.

In the days following Trump’s Truth Social harangue, people in the conservative legal world, which is centered in Washington DC but spans law schools and judge’s chambers across the country, are wondering what this rift portends. Is this a classic Trump tantrum that will soon blow over? Or does it speak to a larger schism, with even the famously conservative Federalist Society not rightwing enough – or fanatically loyal enough – to satisfy Trump?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/08/trump-federalist-society-conservative-legal

This will not end well...for somebody.

[JPK]

1. The FS

They are an organization of fools. They will fall to they wayside of history. The people of the US will never subject themselves to a religious oligarchy. Lenard Leo and the FS are dreaming. They will fail.

[3auld6phart]

4. I dont

Think so. The U.S. is a totally fecked up country. Far to many ignorant gullible fools in power. Whe over or nearly 50% vote for a party that hates fellow citizens they are beyond redemption So bend the knee and kiss the fool’ anal ring and eat the shit he spews . You got what wanted, live with it.

[bottomofthehill]

5. Again, it's about 32 percent of the country that voted for Trump

The bigger shame is that 36 percent did not vote. Really, they are the problem.

[B.See]

2. Another Trump acolyte thrown under the bus.

THEY enabled this mfkr. So fuck em.

[newdeal2]

3. Maybe a good thing

Clarence and the other old RW court stooges might delay retirement because Trump won't pick someone like them.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. Maddow Blog-Why the White House decided even the conservative Federalist Society isn't good enough

The Federalist Society has long been seen as one of the most successful projects of the conservative movement. Team Trump no longer seems to care.

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/white-house-decided-even-conservative-federalist-society-isnt-good-eno-rcna210026

But one nagging detail got in the way: One of the judges that ruled against the White House was appointed by Trump and confirmed by Senate Republicans. The political problem was obvious.

And so, as Politico reported, the president has opened up a new line of attack.

President Donald Trump leveled unusually pointed criticism of a prominent conservative legal activist and organization Thursday as he railed against a ruling that struck down his sweeping tariffs. The president, in a post on his social media platform, slammed Leonard Leo, the former chair of the Federalist Society, calling him a ‘sleazebag’ who ‘probably hates America.’

As part of an odd and meandering online rant, the Republican wrote, “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!”

For those unfamiliar with the Federalist Society, it is a conservative organization that has long been seen as one of the most successful projects of the conservative movement. Indeed, throughout Trump’s first term, the group was a key part of a brutally efficient assembly-line process: The Federalist Society would vet and recommend far-right ideologues for the federal bench; the White House would use the organization’s lists for judicial nominations; Senate Republicans would rubber-stamp the president’s choices; and Americans would watch the judiciary lurch to the right to a degree unseen in generations......

In fact, a year before Election Day 2024, The New York Times reported that Team Trump had begun looking at Federalist Society members as “squishes.” The article quoted Russell Vought, 15 months before he’d begin his latest tenure as the director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, saying, “The Federalist Society doesn’t know what time it is.”

That was in late 2023. Now, midway through 2025, as several Trump-appointed federal judges rule in ways the president does not like, he won’t blame himself, and he’s won't blame Senate Republicans for confirming his picks — but he can blame the Federalist Society for recommending jurists who sometimes see themselves as neutral arbiters of a separate and coequal branch of government.

That’s precisely why Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff, appeared on CNN the morning after Trump’s online rant and accused the Federalist Society of creating “a broken system.” He added, “We’re not going to be using the Federalist Society to make judicial nominations at all going forward.”

As for what Team Trump might replace it with, watch this space

The Federalist Society judges are ultraconservative assholes but they follow the law. trump wants idiots who will worship him and not the law