President Donald Trump is lashing out in anger over a Missouri Supreme Court ruling that could jeopardize his plans to retain control of Congress by any means necessary.
Last fall, the Republican-led state, following Trump’s order for red states to redistrict, enacted a gerrymandered election map eliminating a Democratic district.
The GOP had hoped it would be easier for a Republican to win the state’s 5th Congressional District if they split it up. It would have given Republicans a potential extra seat in the House to bolster the GOP’s razor-thin majority.
The Kansas City-area seat has long been held by prominent African-American Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, according to MS NOW.
But on Thursday, Sept. 3, the Missouri high court threw a wrench in Republicans’ plans, blocking the new congressional map with just two months to go before the November midterms.
The court ruled the map cannot be used unless and until Missouri residents approve it in November.
After state Republicans gerrymandered the map and signed it into law, opponents still had an option to prevent it from going into effect through a ballot initiative in November. They wanted to put the question before voters, MS NOW reported.
The state’s Republican secretary of state resisted, and a lawsuit followed, leading to Thursday’s court decision.
Trump is furious because he was hoping gerrymandered red states would help him keep control of Congress.
He called the ruling “ridiculous,” claiming the newly drawn map is “Ancient History,” which of course it isn’t.
Normally, congressional voting maps are redrawn every 10 years after the U.S. Census. Shortly after retaking office in January of 2025, Trump urged red states to redraw voter maps to favor Republicans. The hope was that the GOP could somehow retain control of the House through the rigged maps.
Trump continued to rant on his Truth Social platform after the ruling.
“The problem is, according to Legal Scholars, that not only was the ruling horrible, ridiculous, and unConstitutional, but there won’t be enough time to change the map back with the Election coming up in a very short period of time.”
Ignoring Republicans’ role in the gerrymandered maps, Trump claimed, “The Election Process, as usual, is being disturbed in America!”
He then ominously proclaimed, “This is a Dark Day for ‘Justice’ in Missouri!”
Congressman Cleaver doesn’t see it that way.
“They brought this on themselves,” he said Friday morning on MS NOW’s “State of Play” with Peter Alexander.
“Look, blaming others will not make Missouri great again,” he added.
Social media erupted with predictions that this was just the beginning of Trump’s attempt to steal the midterms.
“Trump can see the walls closing in on him. It’s going to get much worse,” a Threads user noted.
Another had no sympathy for the president’s anger over the Missouri high court refusing to go along with his gerrymandered maps.
“Cry me a river.”
Others agreed, commenting, “Poor demented little old man didn’t get his way wonder who wrote it” and “Let him keep melting.”
The Missouri GOP Attorney General Catherine Hanaway says it’s not over. She called the ruling an “unprecedented decision” that “violates federal law.” She says the state now faces a “constitutional crisis.”
“Our office will move immediately to seek relief from SCOTUS. We are confident that the federal courts will not allow every Missouri voter to be disenfranchised—which is what today’s decision does,” she said in a post on X.
Of course, there’s no mention of how the GOP’s gerrymandered map first disenfranchised voters when the state legislature rammed it through not even a year ago.
The U.S. Supreme Court is also weighing a federal court decision out of Boston that placed a temporary restraining order on Trump’s attempt to use the U.S. Postal Service to restrict voting by mail just a few months before the midterms.
Trump issued an order to restrict mail-in voting for the midterms, and the USPS complied last month. The order would require state election officials to turn over a list of voters using mail ballots, including their names and addresses, according to NPR.
The order requires certain barcodes on ballot envelopes. The USPS threatened it won’t deliver ballots that don’t follow the rules.
All of that is currently on hold while the Supreme Court considers the lower court ruling. A decision is expected early next week.
