The greatest legacy of President Trump isn’t likely to be record economic growth and opportunity, though they’re incredibly important. It’s not likely to be a de-escalation of international conflict and fewer troops deployments, though that’s critically important. It is the reshaping of the federal courts in this country. As we end 2019, we’re doing so with federal courts that have dramatically been reshaped by the record pace of judicial confirmations. All in, 187 federal judges nominated by President Trump have been confirmed by the Senate. This includes 22% of Supreme Court Justices and 25% of U.S. circuit court judges. All this happened in under three years.
That leads me to Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell. His greatest legacy isn’t likely to be the acquittal of President Trump in an impeachment trial, the failure to replace the Affordable Care Act or the passage of the Trump tax policy that’s led to the record economy. It’s being President Trump’s wingman on reshaping the federal courts. We’ve already started to see the change reflected in decisions that certainly would have gone a different direction even a year ago, especially on the notoriously left-wing 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. It was literally the court Democrats who used to stop the Trump administration policy less than a year ago, they recently sided with the Trump administration.
Aside from Supreme Court nominees, few federal justices gain attention in the news media. It’s seldom specifically reported when a federal judge is confirmed. But make no mistake, with President Trump and Majority leader McConnell overhauling the federal courts at a record pace, this will be the greatest and most pervasive legacy of President Trump. This is before his reelection next year.
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