# Trump's Supreme Court appointees

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Trump's Supreme Court appointees," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/trumps-supreme-court-appointees/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*An assessment John Kiriakou volunteered in February 2026 and that runs against his politics elsewhere: that Donald Trump's appointees to the Supreme Court have been surprisingly good, and that the justices he regards as disasters — Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas — were put there by moderate presidents.*

- **His assessment:** "The Trump appointees to the Supreme Court have been pretty good"
- **Strength of it:** "They've been surprisingly good"
- **Who he faults instead:** "These dinosaurs like Alito and Thomas"
- **Who appointed those:** "The moderate presidents"
- **On Brett Kavanaugh:** Not someone he would want as a housemate, but "he's not Clarence Thomas or Sam Alito"
- **When:** 25 February 2026, volunteered mid-conversation

**Trump's Supreme Court appointees** are the subject of a judgement [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) interrupted himself to offer on 25 February 2026, in the middle of an argument about [Donald Trump](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/donald-trump) publicly announcing he would ignore the Supreme Court.

*"You know, interestingly, I'm sorry to interrupt you. Interestingly, the Trump appointees to the Supreme Court have been pretty good."*[1]

Pressed, he strengthened rather than softened it: *"They've been surprisingly good."*[1]

## Where he puts the fault

The second half of the assessment redirects the blame away from the president he had spent the previous ten minutes criticising. *"It's these dinosaurs like Alito and Thomas appointed by the moderate presidents that are just disasters."*[1]

[Ted Rall](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ted-rall) treated it as a genuine surprise, thanking him for the observation by name — which is what fixes the remark as Kiriakou's rather than his own.[1][2]

## The Kavanaugh qualification

Later in the same broadcast a viewer called Brett Kavanaugh a menace. Kiriakou did not defend him on the merits so much as on the ranking: *"I'm not saying that I would want the guy to be my, you know, housemate or anything. I'm just saying he's not Clarence Thomas or Sam Alito."*[3]

The position is consistent across both remarks — that the court's worst members predate the current presidency, and that the appointments most people expected to be the problem have not been.

## See also

- [Donald Trump](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/donald-trump)
- [Ted Rall](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ted-rall)
- [2026 Iran war](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/2026-iran-war)

## Sources

1. DeProgram (Ted Rall) (2026-02-25), at 09:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI7gFn7KjzI&t=540s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-25-deprogram-ted-rall-deprogram-ted-rall/
2. DeProgram (Ted Rall) (2026-02-25), at 09:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI7gFn7KjzI&t=570s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-25-deprogram-ted-rall-deprogram-ted-rall/
3. DeProgram (Ted Rall) (2026-02-25), at 33:50. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI7gFn7KjzI&t=2030s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-25-deprogram-ted-rall-deprogram-ted-rall/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/trumps-supreme-court-appointees/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt