President Donald Trump told Breitbart News in an exclusive Oval Office interview on Tuesday evening that while he is disappointed about the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding birthright citizenship, the court’s decision in the Trump v. Slaughter case, which once again grants a president the power to fire independent agency employees at will, “more than made up” for it.
Breitbart News’s interview with the president came just hours after the Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship in a 5-4 decision in the Trump v. Barbara case. The president has long maintained that birthright citizenship is unconstitutional, and even attended oral arguments in the case in April at the Supreme Court.
The Slaughter case came about after the president fired former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter without cause. Slaughter then sued the president, arguing the firing was unconstitutional under the FTC Act, which stated that employees of independent agencies may be removed only for “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” The ruling grants the president the power to fire members of the FTC or other independent agencies without a reason.
“It was a disappointing decision, but I think it was, from my personal standpoint, more than made up for by the Slaughter decision, because that was one that was going on for almost 100 years where they took power away from FDR and presidents have tried to regain that power for many, many years,” Trump told Breitbart News when asked about the birthright citizenship ruling.
“If you remember, Taft had the power, and they took it away during FDR, and it’s been almost 100 years, close to 100 years, and everybody’s been trying to regain that power because it was the right thing. It was the correct decision. But a lot of people didn’t know how that was going to go, and then that one I won at 6 to 3. That was a big one. That was a very big win,” he added.
The president noted, as many news outlets have pointed out, that the Slaughter ruling is the most impactful of the term.
“You see, it was the biggest story, bigger than birthright, and I think probably it’s considered bigger than birthright, and that was a win. I’m disappointed about birthright. I think it’s ridiculous. We’re the only country that does it. It’s very expensive, and a lot of bad things can happen,” he said.
“Now, one of the things that came out during this period of time with the Supreme Court is that we can do it through Congress. Some people thought for a while you had to do a Constitutional amendment. That’s no longer so,” he continued. “So I think we’re going to try to get it through Congress. Before we do that, however, it would be nice to get the SAVE America Act passed.”
When asked about terminating the filibuster to pass a birthright law or the SAVE America Act, which safeguards elections by requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote, voter ID, and ending universal mail-in ballots, Trump emphasized, “You could do everything if you got rid of the filibuster.”
“You could do SAVE America, you could do every single thing you dreamt of, you could do Kate’s Law, you could do things that people even haven’t thought about,” he said.
He added that a handful of Republican senators are opposed to lifting the filibuster and predicted that Democrats would immediately nuke it if and when they return to power.
“We have four or five Republican senators that make life difficult, and it’s a shame. You have Lisa Murkowski; you have probably I could say Senator Tillis; Senator Cassidy—maybe for good reason; you have, I would have to say so far Senator Cornyn has been very good, but you have Susan Collins. You have to do what’s right. I don’t see her voting for it. But if you want to have a Republican Party that doesn’t lose an election for 100 years, you terminate the filibuster, and you approve SAVE America, and then you approve another 40 things that you never even thought possible. And that we have senators who are opposed to that is absolutely insane, and remember the Democrats will do it in the first hour.”
Trump escalated his criticisms of Senate Republicans even further on Wednesday, calling on them again to fire the Senate parliamentarian.
“How the Republican Senate is not firing the Parliamentarian, who was appointed by Radical Left Senator Harry Reid, and Barack Hussein Obama, is beyond me!” he wrote in a post on Truth Social. ‘She has been ruling unfairly against Republicans for years, and Majority Leader John Thune has the right to do it, immediately. FIRE THE PARLIAMENTARIAN NOW!”
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