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Trump Criticizes Appointed Justices After Mail Ballot Ruling

Former president expressed disappointment with Supreme Court's rejection of his administration's mail ballot restrictions.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

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President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before boarding Air Force One at Shannon Airport, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Shannon, Ireland. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.) (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

What this story says

  • President Donald Trump criticized Supreme Court justices he appointed after they rejected his administration's planned restrictions on mail ballots.
  • Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito fully agreed with the administration's argument, while others did not write about their rationale.
  • Trump has also expressed frustration over past losses on tariffs and birthright citizenship.
  • The Supreme Court has allowed Trump's administration to proceed with key aspects of his agenda, including immigration crackdowns and military service bans.

Who covered it

Left 50%(10)Centre 31%(12)Right 19%(5)

Percentages are shares of the 27 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 29 of the 56 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

42/100

Craft

57/100

Hype

68/100

56 sources · methodology

Missing from the right

Only 5 of the 27 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.

A reader who follows the right would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.

President Donald Trump has publicly criticized Supreme Court justices he appointed following the court's rejection of his administration's planned restrictions on mail ballots. Trump took to social media to denounce the decision and the justices who ruled against his administration's argument. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito fully supported the administration's position, while other justices did not publish their reasoning for joining the majority opinion. Justice Brett Kavanaugh's concurrence suggested he might have viewed the matter differently if the election were not imminent.

This incident is part of a broader pattern where Trump expresses admiration for rulings that favor him and sharp criticism for those that do not. He has previously voiced frustration over court losses concerning tariffs and birthright citizenship. Despite these setbacks, the Supreme Court has permitted Trump's administration to advance significant parts of its agenda, including immigration enforcement measures and bans on transgender military service. The court has also allowed the administration to proceed with actions that weakened the Voting Rights Act and enabled partisan redistricting.

Disagreement on Rationale

Reports indicate that while Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito fully agreed with the administration's argument regarding mail ballot restrictions, the other justices did not publish their specific rationales for their decisions. WPLG noted that Justice Brett Kavanaugh indicated he might have reached a different conclusion if the election had not been so close.

What the coverage left out

None of the left-rated digests mention the specific details of the rulings that allowed Trump's administration to proceed with immigration crackdowns and military service bans, which were detailed in the full report from WPLG.

Coverage settled. We checked this 16 times and stopped on 21 Sept 2026, 08:45. The figures above are what it finished at.

How other outlets pictured it

Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.

CNN: Tramp oštro kritikovao sudije Vrhovnog suda SAD 1
Dnevni list DanasLeft

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

10 rated outlets

  • Left-rated reports highlighted President Trump's public criticism of the Supreme Court justices he appointed, particularly after the court rejected his administration's planned restrictions on mail ballots. These reports noted Trump's statement that the justices were 'not the people I interviewed' and were a 'pale shadow of what they once were.' They also mentioned his frustration with past losses on tariffs and birthright citizenship. Some left-rated reports included commentary from legal experts, such as Don Verrilli, who suggested the court was asserting its independence from the president.

Centre

12 rated outlets

  • The centre-rated reports focused on President Trump's personal reactions to Supreme Court rulings. They noted his praise for favourable decisions and his criticism of those he opposed, particularly from justices he appointed.
  • These reports detailed the court's rejection of his administration's planned mail ballot restrictions. They also mentioned Trump's social media posts denigrating the decision and the justices involved.
  • The coverage highlighted Trump's past frustrations with losses on tariffs and birthright citizenship. It also noted the court had allowed many aspects of his agenda to proceed, while striking down others.

Right

5 rated outlets

  • Right-rated reports noted President Trump's criticism of the Supreme Court, specifically mentioning his dissatisfaction with the decision on postal voting. One report stated that Trump sees the 'radical left' at work, but also attacks the three judges he himself chose for the Supreme Court. Another report quoted Trump saying the court's decisions have cost the United States trillions of dollars due to their poor quality.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Trump Criticizes Appointed Justices After Mail Ballot Ruling?
Of the 27 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 50% are rated left, 31% are rated centre, 19% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 56. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Trump Criticizes Appointed Justices After Mail Ballot Ruling left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 27 rated outlets on this story, 50% are rated left, 31% are rated centre, 19% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of Trump Criticizes Appointed Justices After Mail Ballot Ruling biased?
Trump Criticizes Appointed Justices After Mail Ballot Ruling is one event reported by 56 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Trump Criticizes Appointed Justices After Mail Ballot Ruling?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Trump Criticizes Appointed Justices After Mail Ballot Ruling?
56 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
Why did Donald Trump criticize the Supreme Court justices he appointed?
President Donald Trump criticized the Supreme Court justices he appointed after they rejected his administration's planned restrictions on mail ballots. He expressed disappointment, stating they were 'not the people I interviewed.'
Which justices agreed with Trump's administration on the mail ballot restrictions?
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito fully agreed with the administration's argument regarding the planned restrictions on mail ballots. Other justices did not publish their rationale for joining the majority opinion.
Has the Supreme Court always ruled against Trump's administration?
No, the Supreme Court has allowed key aspects of Trump's agenda to proceed, including immigration crackdowns and military service bans. However, he has faced high-profile losses on issues like tariffs and birthright citizenship.

Read it at the source

56 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

10
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Centre

12
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Right

5

Not rated

29
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How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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