Rage

by Bob Woodward

Trump said he had just “signed my 187th federal judge,” and reminded me of his two Supreme Court appointments. “When I get out, I’ll probably have more than 50 percent of the federal judges in the country appointed under Trump,” he bragged. “The only one that has a better percentage is George Washington, because he appointed 100 percent.” Although Trump has repeated this claim often, it is not factual. Among recent presidents, Clinton, Carter and Nixon had each filled a greater percentage of federal judgeships by late January of the fourth year of their first term. He was also not alone in appointing two Supreme Court justices in his first term—Presidents Obama, Clinton and George H. W. Bush had also done so. I said my reporting showed that Trump had nominated some judges that Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and other Republicans had rejected. “Yeah,” Trump said. “When they don’t like them, I don’t put them in.” He added, “In some cases they’re not conservative or they don’t believe or they came out with a couple of bad decisions or something.”