Trump blasts SCOTUS mail ballot ruling as 'detrimental', says SAVE Act is ‘even more important’

WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump blasted the Supreme Court's decision allowing certain late-arriving mail ballots to be counted, using the ruling to intensify his call for Congress to pass the SAVE America Act.

The president argued the ruling would encourage illegal voting, even as he welcomed a separate Supreme Court decision that expanded presidential authority to remove leaders of independent federal agencies. Together, the split rulings gave Trump fresh ammunition to advance two of his longstanding priorities.

Trump pushes SAVE America Act after ruling

Asked on Monday, June 29, about the court's decision upholding Mississippi's law allowing ballots postmarked by Election Day to arrive later, Trump called the outcome disappointing.

"Because of the mail-in ballot ruling, which was a little bit surprising, gives people more time to vote illegally, let's say, but the SAVE Act is even more important," Trump told reporters.

He added, "The ruling, which a lot of people were waiting for, that was a ruling that was, I think, it was very detrimental to August elections, but it is what it is."

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that federal election laws do not require mailed ballots to be received by Election Day, allowing laws in more than a dozen states that count ballots arriving after Election Day, provided they were postmarked on time, to remain in place.

Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said, "Nothing in the federal election-day statutes requires ballots to be received by election day."

Trump also returned to the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship for voter registration, arguing there was "no excuse" for opposing the legislation in a Truth Social post following the ruling.

Trump welcomes expanded presidential powers

Trump struck a sharply different tone when asked about the court's separate ruling allowing presidents to remove leaders of independent agencies.

"I don't think so. It gives me the right, and not me, it gives a president the right to do what the president should have the right to do," he said when asked whether more firings should be expected.

Calling it "a big ruling," Trump added that presidents had waited "almost 100 years" for the decision and described receiving it during his presidency as "a very great honor."

The ruling overturned decades of precedent by allowing the president to fire leaders of independent agencies, including in the case involving former Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter.

Supreme Court rulings split reactions

The mail ballot ruling drew praise from voting rights advocates, who argued it protected voters from being disenfranchised.

"A ballot mailed on time is a vote cast on time, and the court just affirmed what's been true for over a century," said Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project.

Meanwhile, Trump celebrated the executive power ruling on Truth Social, calling it "one of the most important ever given with respect to Presidential Powers" and saying it was a "Historic and Unprecedented Ruling" that presidents had sought since the 1930s.