‘Fidgeting’ Trump Relocated During High-Stakes Supreme Court Hearing, Report Claims

A report emerging from President Donald Trump‘s extraordinary visit to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday described him as “fidgeting” and having to be moved during oral arguments over his administration’s bid to restrict birthright citizenship.

ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said in an interview with MSNOW that he was seated one row behind Trump, with Secret Service between them, which gave him a direct view of the president throughout the argument. Romero said some early press reports were incomplete because Trump did not leave immediately after the government’s side finished. In Romero’s telling, Trump stayed for “at least 10 to 15 minutes” of the ACLU’s presentation as well.

Trump’s attendance was historic on its own as he became the first sitting U.S. president known to attend Supreme Court oral arguments, showing up for a case that cuts to the center of his immigration agenda. Romero added that he felt the president’s attendance was to “intimidate the justices,” and “glower” at them.

Romero expressed strong confidence in winning the case against the Trump administration, calling the ACLU’s arguments “ironclad,” pointing out that Trump-appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett seemed to be “very much with us.” He also predicted that the ACLU “wins this case 7-2…I think we may even get a 9-0.”

The justices were hearing arguments over his executive order aimed at denying automatic U.S. citizenship to some children born on American soil, a move that lower courts have blocked. According to AP, Trump sat in the public gallery near Attorney General Pam Bondi and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. He remained for roughly an hour and a half, then left before the full proceeding was over.

Romero’s most vivid description was about Trump’s demeanor. He said, “I could see him fidgeting in the chair,” and added that when ACLU legal director Cecillia Wang began her opening and started answering questions from the justices, Trump “started getting restless” and that “his shoulders slumped a little bit.”

He said Trump was initially seated “on the very end of the front row,” and that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick then asked security to move Trump so he could be seated “more centrally in the courtroom.” Romero said that change placed Trump “literally right in front of us.”

The report about Trump’s behavior inside the courtroom spread quickly because it fit into the larger storyline surrounding the hearing. Several outlets noted that Trump appeared restless or disengaged at points. The Daily Beast, citing reporters in the room, said he closed his eyes during part of the proceedings, while the Washington Post described him as unusually silent in a setting where the justices, not the politicians, command the stage.

The Supreme Court does not allow cameras in the courtroom, so public understanding of the moment has come through pool reports, courtroom dispatches, and accounts from people who were there.