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The Situation Room

President Trump Addresses Supreme Court Decisions; Supreme Court Issues Landmark Rulings. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired June 27, 2025 - 11:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:30:02]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: To both of you, thank you very much for joining us.

I want to go to the White House right now. Kristen Holmes is standing by.

The news conference with the president, he's about to make a statement and presumably answer reporters' questions. Is that right?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right.

And we don't know yet if he's going to actually answer reporters' questions. Remember, we have seen this time and time again, where they bill something as a news conference and then Trump leaves. But since he has been elected president, Donald Trump often likes to talk to reporters. So it is likely he's going to answer some questions once he sits out there and gives his statement.

We are still expecting this likely to be about that Supreme Court ruling. Just one thing to keep in mind, there's a lot of talk about birthright citizenship here, but when you look at the ruling as a whole, this is something that President Trump's team has been working towards since the beginning of his administration, this idea about lower court rulings and lower courts issuing injunctions.

And they have really tried to make a case, and, obviously, they have now before the Supreme Court, but even in public mind, that they shouldn't have to abide by these lower court injunctions. So, when you look at how this ruling is set to limit the power of the lower courts to issue these injunctions, this is a huge win for the Trump administration on so many levels, because this is something they can now use for other levers of their administration, for other levers of what they have been trying to pull as they have gotten into office.

And it really does -- when you talk to these analysts who are breaking down what this means, it seems to give the executive branch more power when you look at the structure as a whole. And that, of course, is something we know that President Trump wanted when he came into office. It was part of the platform that he ran on to accumulate power within the executive branch. Now, President Trump has always said that he would abide by the

Supreme Court, but it was the lower courts that he was taking issue with. And now, when you look at this ruling, he can tout the fact that he feels that he was right, because, again, he's going to look at this ruling and say that they were in the right for many decisions that they have made to essentially kind of go around lower court rulings.

And, again, this ruling limiting the power of the lower courts, will obviously affect this birthright citizenship, but it's also going to affect a lot of different avenues that the president has to move forward with his agenda.

BLITZER: He called it a giant win in the United States State Supreme Court in his post that he put out there just a little while ago.

We're showing our viewers, Kristen, live pictures from the White House Press Briefing Room. That's where he's going to be making this statement. Do we know who's going to be joining him up on the stage over there?

HOLMES: We don't know yet. I would assume Attorney General Pam Bondi is going to be joining him as well, but we don't have a full list of people that are going to be in the Briefing Room with him when he takes to the podium there.

I mean, this is rare, at least in this administration and this time in office, because we saw this during his first tenure, during particularly coronavirus and COVID. He would come out and give some briefings in the press room. He has not been doing that this time around.

What he tends to do is kind of sit in the Oval Office, sign executive orders, bring reporters in and talk to the pool, the White House press pool. This is an opportunity for many more reporters from different outlets to ask him these questions and, again, the people who cover the White House every day.

And I'm sure there are quite a few questions outside of the Supreme Court ruling that reporters want to know the answers to.

BLITZER: And it's about to begin very soon, we're told. We will have live coverage. That's coming up.

Kristen, thank you very, very much.

We will take a quick break. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:38:44]

BLITZER: Looking at the White House Press Briefing Room.

Momentarily, the president of the United States we will walk in to that Press Briefing Room, get up to the microphones, make a statement. And, hopefully, he will start answering questions from reporters who are sitting there getting ready for this news conference. I hope it's a news conference, not just an opening statement by the president of the United States.

Jeff Zeleny is on the scene for us. He's inside the Briefing Room.

Set the scene for us, Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, there's no question this is the end of a fairly extraordinary week for President Trump.

If you think back, it was less than a week ago, on last Saturday night, when he addressed the nation talking about those extraordinary military strikes on Iran. Then, of course, he went to the NATO summit in The Hague. And now he, of course, is back here.

And he's expected to, I'm told, celebrate what he explained earlier as a giant win by the U.S. Supreme Court, talking about the birthright citizenship issue, of course, even though the court is going to rule on the merits of that later, but also just the idea of executive power.

Wolf, if you step back here after the first six months or so of the Trump administration, of this presidency, it's clear this is his Supreme Court. This is one of the major differences from his first term in office, of course. He has three justices that he appointed on the Supreme Court and the judiciary across the country also has many Trump appointees.

[11:40:03]

Now, it's been a mixed bag, if you will, of rulings, as we have seen. But the ruling today by the court, it will not cause immediate relief. It will send many cases back to lower courts and open the door for class actions.

But it signals one big question that all presidents have, certainly this president has. And that is the power of the executive branch, the power of the presidency. And throughout the ruling, and I'm told that the president was hearing some passages, his advisers were reading to him, that a single judge cannot block the executive branch.

So that is something I expect him to talk about here at the press briefing. But it's also a moment for the president to talk about other challenges. He's staying in Washington this weekend, which is unusual. He normally goes to his golf club either at Bedminster during the summer or Mar-a-Lago in the winter.

But I'm told he's staying here to work with Senate Republicans. He wants them to get the job done, to pass his signature legislation by July 4. That is very much an open question, the timing, at least. So I expect the president is also to make some more sales pitches, if you will, on that.

And there are some central questions hanging over that bill as well, Medicaid cuts. He has vowed repeatedly not to cut Medicaid. Even some Senate Republicans are worried about the cuts in the bill, the effect it would have on rural hospitals across the country, so much on the line, much at stake for the president.

But, for now at least, the end of the Supreme Court term certainly is something that the president would like to celebrate -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Looks like some aides are walking in right now. So I anticipate the president will be walking up to that microphone very, very soon as well.

And I just want to point out -- and, Jeff, correct me if I'm wrong -- he doesn't often go into the press Briefing Room. He usually does these exchanges with reporters either in the Oval Office, the Roosevelt Room, or some other room in the White House in the West Wing or outside on the South Lawn of the White House as he's going to Marine One or something along those lines. Is that right?

ZELENY: It is, Wolf.

By my memory, at least, and we can check this, I believe it's only the second time he has had a news briefing here in the White House Briefing Room. The first was in the early days of his presidency after the tragic plane crash at National Airport. He, of course, came in this Briefing Room and took questions.

But you're right. He often does his exchanges with reporters often on a near-daily basis in the Oval Office or other places on this campus. But, no, there's no doubt this is a different moment, but he wants to obviously talk about and celebrate what he sees as a giant win, as he put it on TRUTH Social earlier this morning.

But, also, think of all that's happened again, Wolf, over the last week. It's been extraordinary. And many questions remain about the Iranian nuclear program, of course, his foreign policy agenda, as well as his domestic priorities as well.

So it's a good, I guess, halfway mark of this first year in office for the president to come and take some questions. We will see if he does so.

BLITZER: Yes, if he does answer reporters' questions, I assume questions will come up not only about the U.S. Supreme Court decisions today, but also about the fate of the president's so-called big, beautiful bill that's still before the Senate right now, will eventually have to go back to the House of Representatives, also, as you correctly point out, the Iran nuclear situation, what's going on, on that front.

We will see if those questions come up. I suspect they will. We will see what the president has to say.

We will take another quick break, resume our special coverage right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:48:08]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: And welcome back.

Any moment now, we expect President Trump there to walk to the podium, the White House Press Briefing Room, on this huge day where we had these landmark decisions from the Supreme Court. And there's a lot of other things going on, including big decisions on his -- what he does, the big, beautiful bill, on Iran, a lot to discuss today.

As we wait for the president -- oh, here he comes. He's walking up to the podium. Let's listen in.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This was a big one, wasn't it? This was a big decision, an amazing decision, one that we're very happy about.

This morning, the Supreme Court has delivered a monumental victory for the Constitution, the separation of powers, and the rule of law. In striking down the excessive use of nationwide injunctions to interfere with the normal functioning of the executive branch, the Supreme Court has stopped the presidency itself. That's what they have done.

And, really, it's been -- it's been an amazing period of time, this last hour. There are people elated all over the country. I have seen such, such happiness and spirit. Sometimes, you don't see that, but this case is very important.

I was elected on a historic mandate, but, in recent months, we have seen a handful of radical left judges effectively try to overrule the rightful powers of the president to stop the American people from getting the policies that they voted for in record numbers. It was a grave threat to democracy, frankly.

And instead of merely ruling on the immediate cases before them, these judges have attempted to dictate the law for the entire nation. In practice, this meant that if any one of the nearly 700 federal judges disagreed with the policy of a duly elected president of the United States, he or she could block that policy from going into effect or at least delay it for many years, tie it up in the court system.

[11:50:06]

This was a colossal abuse of power, which never occurred in American history prior to recent decades. And we have been hit with more nationwide injunctions than were issued in the entire 20th century together. Think of it, more than the entire 20th century, me.

I'm grateful to the Supreme Court for stepping in solving this very, very big and complex problem. And they have made it very simple. I want to thank Justice Barrett, who wrote the opinion brilliantly, as well as Chief John Roberts, and Justices Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Thomas, great people.

Thanks for this decision and thanks to this decision, we can now promptly file to proceed with numerous policies that have been wrongly enjoined on a nationwide basis. And some of the cases we're talking about would be ending birthright citizenship, which now comes to the fore. That was meant for the babies of slaves. It wasn't meant for people trying to scam the system and come into the country on a vacation.

This was -- in fact, it was the same date, the exact same date, the end of the Civil War. It was meant for the babies of slaves, and it's so clean and so obvious. But this lets us go there and finally win that case, because hundreds of thousands of people are pouring into our country under birthright citizenship.

And it wasn't meant for that reason. It was meant for the babies of slaves. So, thanks to this decision, we can now properly file to proceed with these numerous policies and those that have been wrongly enjoined on a nationwide basis, including birthright citizenship, ending sanctuary city funding, suspending refugee resettlement, freezing unnecessary funding, stopping federal taxpayers from paying for transgender surgeries, and numerous other priorities of the American people.

We have so many of them. I have a whole list. I'm not going to bore you. And I'm going to have Pam get up and say a few words. But there's really -- she could talk as long as you want, because this is a very important decision. This is a decision that covers a tremendous amount of territory.

But I want to just thank, again, the Supreme Court for this ruling. It's a giant. It's a giant. And they should be very proud. And our country should be very proud of the Supreme Court today.

And, with that, I'd like you to listen to the words of Pam Bondi. She's an incredible attorney general. We're very proud of her. And, as you know, Todd Blanche is with us, and we have so many others that worked on this case and other cases. And I think they're doing a great job.

Pam, please say a few words.

PAM BONDI, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Thank you, President Trump. Thank you for fighting for all Americans.

Americans are finally getting what they voted for. No longer will we have rogue judges striking down President Trump's policies across the entire nation, no longer. Today, in the 6-3 opinion, Justice Barrett correctly holds that the district court lacks authority to enter nationwide or universal injunctions.

These lawless injunctions gave relief to everyone in the world, instead of the parties before the court. As the Supreme Court held today, they turned district courts into the imperial judiciary. Active liberal justices, judges have used these injunctions to block virtually all of President Trump's policies.

To put this in perspective, there are 94 federal judicial districts. Five of those districts throughout this country held 35 of the nationwide injunctions. Think about that; 94 districts and 35 out of the 40 opinions with nationwide injunctions came from five liberal districts in this country.

No longer. No longer. These injunctions have blocked our policies from tariffs to military readiness to immigration to foreign affairs, fraud, abuse, and many other issues. The judges have tried to seize the executive branch's power, and they cannot do that. No longer. No longer.

And on immigration, on a side note, today marks 2,711 arrests on these terrorists and these gangs, total arrests today with HSI investigations. And thank you, Stephen Miller. Thank you to Homeland Security. Thank you to everyone working hand in hand with the FBI on all of these transnational gangs. TDA has been a huge terror to our country, as well as MS-13, as well as Sinaloa Cartel. No longer. No longer.

[11:55:05]

These injunctions have allowed district court judges to be emperors. They vetoed all of President Trump's power, and they cannot do that. This has been a bipartisan problem that has lasted five presidential terms, five different presidents, and it has ended today.

We will continue to fight for President Trump's policies. I want to thank the office of White House counsel, Dave Warrington. You and your staff have been incredible. Our solicitor general's office, John Sauer, Sarah Harris, and Todd Blanche and Emil Bove. Todd's going to say a few words because we have had another major ruling today on transgender books and some other great wins that we have had.

But no longer will they have this power in our country. It is the president's authority under his executive branch to do everything to fight for the American people, and he will continue to do that. That's why he was overwhelmingly elected.

Thank you.

TODD BLANCHE, U.S. DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL: Thank you.

And today is a great day for the rule of law. It's a great day for the Justice Department. And it's one that's been a long time coming and one that every American should have been waiting for with bated breath. And so I echo what the president said and Attorney General Bondi that the Supreme Court did a great thing today, not only for this administration, but for every American in this country.

If not for the injunctions case, we would be here talking about another great decision that came down today, the trans books case, which restores parents' rights to decide their child's education. Seems like a basic idea, but it took the Supreme Court to set the record straight, and we thank them for that.

And now that ruling allows parents to opt out of dangerous trans ideology and make the decisions for their children that they believe is correct. And so we thank the Supreme Court for that. There's been multiple decisions over the past several weeks that just show why this injunction -- why this nationwide injunction ban had to happen. For example, what I mean by that is local district court judges

issuing decisions that are clearly contrary to law just because they don't like the policy of President Trump. And when it gets to the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court has to correct it, but that takes time. The attorney general thanked our lawyers, and I will do it again.

Our lawyers are working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to fight these injunctions and do emergency appeals, emergency stays, going back to the district court judge, asking them to change their view. And so their hard work is really paying off today, but over the past few weeks. We had a stay of an order that prevented DHS from moving aliens to a third country.

We had a stay of an order that stopped the Department of Defense from implementing military readiness, the E.O. that President Trump signed. We had another stay of an order forcing reinstatement of fired executive branch employees entirely within the president in Article II his right to do.

We had a stay of, as you all know, of numerous DOGE cases. And, again, every one of those stays requires a tremendous amount of work and effort by the lawyers and parties involved, and they should be doing other work. They should be doing the work that the president and this administration demands and has a right to demand, and not fighting these local judges who don't make decisions based on the law.

They make decisions because they just simply don't agree with the administration's decision about a policy, and that's wrong. Thank you.

TRUMP: Any questions?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Yes, for Pam, please.

BONDI: Go ahead.

QUESTION: Sure. Thank you, Madam Attorney General.

So, as you know, the Supreme Court did not rule on the underlying constitutionality of the president's birthright citizenship order. So what is the plan now? Are you going to try to implement the E.O. just in states where there isn't a legal challenge?

BONDI: Yes, so birthright citizenship will be decided in October in the next session by the Supreme Court, unless it comes down in the next few minutes. I guess it could come down. There's still -- I think they're still deliberating right now on some cases. As you heard, we just got transgender books, which is a huge win, but most likely that will be decided in October in the next session.

However, it indirectly impacts us because, as you correctly pointed out, if there's a birthright citizenship case in Oregon, it will only affect the plaintiff in Oregon, not the entire country. So, yes, it's indirectly, but that's pending litigation, and we're waiting on that in the next term.

QUESTION: And how concerned are you that the Supreme Court will come back and determine that the executive order is unconstitutional?

BONDI: Oh, we're very confident in the Supreme Court.

But, again, it's pending litigation. And that will directly be determined in October, but it indirectly impacts every case in this country, and we're thrilled with their decision today.

Peter.

QUESTION: Madam Attorney General, thank you for being here to take our questions.

A couple questions to the both of you. The E.O. goes -- had a 30-day grace period before it goes into effect.