Trump has installed more white judges than any president in 25 years

Trump is reshaping the American courts for decades to come — and turning back the clock on diversity by nominating more white judges than any president in the last 25 years.

92% of Trump nominees who have been confirmed to U.S. district courts, and 90% of Trump’s circuit court judges, have been white, according to Congressional Research Service data reported by HuffPost on Tuesday. Trump also did not confirm a single black or Latino judge to the circuit court, and his district court judges were only 2% black and 2% Latino.

Trump has also put a thumb on the scale in terms of gender: 89% of his confirmed circuit court judges and 74% of his district court judges were men.

The last time the field of judicial nominees was as white as Trump’s was during the presidency of George H.W. Bush from 1989-1993.

President Barack Obama’s judicial nominations were historically diverse, a trend that Trump is now drastically reversing. Obama’s circuit court nominees were just 65% white and 56% male, and his district court judges were 63% white and 59% male.

“Whether it’s for district courts or higher-ranking appeals courts, Trump’s confirmed lifetime judges are overwhelmingly white men with records of opposing abortion, LGBTQ rights and voting rights,” HuffPost reports.

HuffPost also notes an alarming statistic on the ideology of Trump’s nominees: 80% of Trump’s judges are members of the Federalist Society, an ultra-conservative legal group designed as a pipeline to stack the courts with true believers in its anti-abortion, anti-LGBT, anti-voting rights philosophy.

Instead of following Obama’s lead and installing judges that better reflect America’s diversity, Trump has sought to install white, male, conservative ideologues.

This mission has been aided and abetted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans in the Senate, who have made packing the courts with extremist Trump nominees one of their central missions.

And many of these nominees, no matter what their race or gender, are extremely unqualified.

These are the types of figures Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) was referring to on Monday when she said the Senate’s energy should be focused on installing judges rather than holding Trump’s corrupt presidency accountable.

Trump has surrounded himself with an amen chorus of almost all white men in his inner circle and in his Cabinet (which still lacks a Secretary of Defense or Homeland Security).

Trump is an unpopular, racist president who is thoroughly out of touch with today’s diverse America — and it shows in the people he chooses to nominate for important positions.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.