Donald Trump Is 'Chickening Out' of Supreme Court Argument: Ex-Ally

Former President Donald Trump is "chickening out" of the Supreme Court case on his 2024 candidacy, according to his former national security adviser.

"Trump is chickening out by avoiding attending the Supreme Court argument this week," former Trump official John Bolton wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday.

"He knows he's badly outnumbered by people who respect the rule of law," Bolton said. "Anyone who assumes that the three Supreme Court Justices that Trump appointed will blindly rule in his favor doesn't know the kind of Justices he selected."

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the 14th Amendment case challenging Trump's eligibility to serve a second term on Thursday. Citing Trump's role in the January 6 Capitol riot, the case—brought by a group of Colorado voters—argues that Trump should be disqualified by a constitutional clause, which prohibits an individual who swore an oath to support the Constitution and then engaged in insurrection from serving federal or state office.

Last month, the Colorado Supreme Court decided that Trump's actions related to the Capitol riot in 2021 make him ineligible for the presidency and ordered that Trump's name be removed from the state's Republican primary ballot. Trump's appeal of the decision is the case being presented before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Trump is not expected to attend Thursday's hearing, where attorney and conservative advocate Johnathan Mitchell will be making the former president's arguments to the justices. Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign via email for comment.

Bolton said he doesn't believe Trump will appear because the former president is "worried he's outnumbered nine to one," referencing the court's nine justices.

"It's not just some district judge somewhere, some state court judge in New York, this is the Supreme Court. This is the third branch of government sitting in front of him," Bolton told CNN's Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday. "Three of whose members he appointed."

Trump appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanugh and Amy Coney Barrett during his first term. Even though Trump's appointees have tipped the court and created a conservative supermajority, Bolton said those justices won't just bend to Trump's will and that it's likely Trump will "be disappointed in them" for possibly disagreeing with him.

The Supreme Court is also expected to hear the issue of Trump's immunity claim in the coming months. The former president has tried to argue that he is immune from criminal prosecution for his actions following the 2020 presidential election. It is unclear if Trump would attend oral arguments for the immunity claim at a later date.