Maggie Haberman says Trump is worried Supreme Court may rule against him on ballot removals

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said former President Trump is worried the Supreme Court may rule against him on recent decisions in Colorado and Maine that booted him from the 2024 ballot in those states.

Haberman said during an appearance on CNN last week that while Trump largely believes the Supreme Court will rule in his favor, he is also worried that it may not. If the Supreme Court holds up the Colorado ruling, it could lead to other states removing Trump from the ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause.

“They believe, generally speaking, he and his advisors, that they will have success at the Supreme Court, but he has also voiced some concern that a court that has — he appointed three of the justices at the Supreme Court and gave the conservatives a supermajority — he is concerned that they are going to look as if they’re trying not to rule in his favor and might rule against him,” Haberman said.

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Colorado and Maine removed Trump from their 2024 ballots last month after concluding he was ineligible to run for president under the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause. Both decisions are expected to be challenged by Trump and will likely end up before the Supreme Court.

It’s not yet clear how the high court may rule on the matter, since it has not issued a decision on the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause since it was ratified in 1868.

Haberman also noted that some of Trump’s political advisers believe there is a “political advantage” to the recent decisions.

“We will see, but right now, this is crowding out final days of the primaries when [Trump’s] rivals, who are trailing him, need to get attention,” she said. “And to that end, his team sees some advantage, and also, to the points made before, there are a lot of people, including some Democrats, who are criticizing these decisions, and they are amplifying that as much as they can.”