The Supreme Court Spent Two Days Saying No to Trump. Then His Own Party and the Polls Piled On.
Four losses at the Supreme Court in forty-eight hours, a birthright order set on fire, his own House Republicans torching his favorite bill on the way out the door, and approval ratings still swimming for the bottom. Grab something cold — the schadenfreude is on the house.
1. Trump Tried to Cancel Birthright Citizenship. The Supreme Court Struck It Down 6-3 — and Roberts Wrote the Eulogy.
On June 30 the Supreme Court struck down Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship, ruling 6-3 in Trump v. Barbara that children born in the United States "are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment's Citizenship Clause." The opinion came from Chief Justice John Roberts — a Republican appointee — and it torched the day-one order Trump signed in January 2025 as the centerpiece of his immigration agenda. Every court that read the order said no; the highest one just said it permanently.
You cannot repeal a constitutional amendment with a signature and a vibe. Eighteen months of insisting otherwise bought him a 6-3 burial and a permanent footnote in how citizenship actually works.
2. Trump Asked the Supreme Court to Erase the E. Jean Carroll Verdict. They Didn't Even Take the Meeting.
On June 29 the Supreme Court declined to hear Trump's appeal of the $5 million verdict a Manhattan jury handed down in 2023 after finding he sexually abused and defamed writer E. Jean Carroll. A denial of certiorari is the end of the road — there is no higher court left to ask. "It's time for him to pay," Carroll's team said after the ruling, and within days her lawyers moved to collect. Trump said he was "surprised."
He appealed all the way to the top and got a one-line no. The verdict is permanent, the check is due, and the only person surprised is the man who signed the appeal.
3. He Tried to Fire a Federal Reserve Governor. The Court Told Him He Hadn't Even Read the Rules.
In a 5-4 ruling on June 29, the justices blocked Trump from firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook — who would have been the first Fed governor removed in the central bank's 111-year history. His justification was a stack of mortgage-fraud allegations Cook flatly denies; the Court's answer was that he "failed to afford Cook the procedural protections to which she was entitled by statute." He reached for a power no president had touched since the Fed opened in 1913 and dropped it on his own foot before the Court even had to decide whether he was allowed to pick it up.
He lost because he skipped the paperwork, and lost harder for not knowing there was any. The whole job was the procedure, and he assigned it to nobody.
4. Trump Called This Ruling a 'Tremendous Loss.' For Once, We Agree With Him Completely.
On June 29 the Supreme Court upheld a Mississippi law that counts mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day even when they land a few days later, rejecting a Republican National Committee challenge 5-4 in Watson v. Republican National Committee. The majority opinion was written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett — a Trump appointee — who then walked the Court's three liberals across the finish line with her. Trump raged on Truth Social that it was a "tremendous loss", and for the first time in recorded history we are in complete agreement with the man.
When your own hand-picked justice writes the opinion against you, it isn't a deep-state conspiracy. It's just the mail — arriving on time, addressed to you, marked return to sender.
5. Trump's Own House Republicans Torched His Favorite Bill — and the Defense Bill With It — Then Left Town Early.
On June 30, 14 House Republicans joined Democrats to sink a procedural rule by a vote of 198-224 — the rule needed to move this year's National Defense Authorization Act — over a fight about bolting Trump's cherished SAVE America Act voting bill onto it. With the floor paralyzed, GOP leaders gave up and sent the House into an early recess. Trump had spent weeks demanding his party ram the SAVE Act through, even refusing to sign a bipartisan housing bill to force their hand. His reward: a dead defense bill, a dead voting bill, and a Congress that packed up and went home.
He leaned on his own majority so hard it buckled and took the defense budget down with it. The only thing that passed this week was the House itself — quietly, through the exit.
6. And Then the Country Turned In Its Report Card. He's Still Failing.
As the courts and his own party piled on, the electorate kept its own running tab. Trump's approval closed June deep underwater on The Economist's tracker, and a New York Times/Siena survey found just 37% approve — territory the Times noted no modern president had ever occupied. His marks on the economy run lower still. Four months from the midterms, the least popular thing in America is the man who can't go ten minutes without telling you how loved he is.
The rulings he can appeal. Public opinion doesn't take appeals — it just keeps the tab running, and his is deep in the red and long past due.
Now go back to doomscrolling. You've earned five minutes of not-doom.