President Trump and his allies are waging war with the Federalist Society as he sees parts of his second-term agenda blocked by some of his own judicial appointees.
Simmering tensions broke into full public view after Trump called longtime Federalist leader Leonard Leo a “sleazebag” after a court blocked the bulk of Trump’s tariffs.
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The Federalist Society once played a central role in advising Trump’s White House on those decisions. But in the president’s second term, the process has shifted to include outside influence from the Article III Project, which is spearheaded by close Trump legal ally Mike Davis.
Davis served as chief counsel for nominations to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) during Trump’s first term, where in that role he helped clear the way for the president’s judicial nominees. David also previously clerked for Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s first nominee to the high court. His relationship with Trump grew closer after the FBI raided the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort and he defended the president in the press.
Meanwhile, the Federalist Society looked the other way, Davis said in an interview with The Hill.
“They abandoned President Trump during the lawfare against him,” he said. “And not only did they abandon him — they had several FedSoc leaders who participated in the lawfare and threw gas on the fire.”
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But the splintering relationship between Trump and the Federalist Society has been “brewing for years,” Davis said.
In January, allies of the president grew outraged online after Politico reported that a public relations firm chaired by Leo was assisting an advocacy group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence in a campaign to derail Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination.
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Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who represented Trump with Bove, accused Whelan of being envious, saying he was leveling “cheap shots.” Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Justice Department’s civil rights division, called it one of “dumbest and nastiest headlines” she had ever seen.
“Some small minded men appear to be jealous and bitter that the best they can do is dictate their unedited mean girl thoughts into their phones and have some other mean girls publish the same,” Dhillon wrote on X.
Trump’s second term presents another chance to elevate conservative-minded judicial nominees nationwide. Davis said there’s no going back to the 2016 playbook.
“We have to update our playbook, and we have to have a different prototype for judges,” he said. “They need to be bold and fearless, like Emil Bove.”
“And I’m not saying they need to be bold and fearless for Trump, he added. “They need to be bold and fearless for the Constitution.”
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