President Trump met last week with a number of right-wing activists including Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who grilled the president on why his own supporters were being supposedly blocked from administration positions.
The New York Times reports that Trump met for about 60 minutes with a number of conservative activists including Ginni Thomas, who accused White House aides of blocking conservatives and allies of the president from various positions.
{mosads}Other members of the delegation reportedly included Rosemary Jenks of the immigration-reduction group NumbersUSA, and Frank Gaffney, the founder of the Center for Security Policy known for anti-Muslim rhetoric and conspiracy theories. The chief of staff for Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas.) also attended the meeting, though she was introduced as a “conservative columnist,” according to the Times.
Topics beyond administration appointments included women in the military, according to the Times, which reports that at least one member of the delegation pressed Trump on whether female soldiers should be allowed to serve.
The president said little during the meeting, sources told the Times, but at one point called his daughter and White House counselor Ivanka Trump into the Oval Office to proclaim that she would be much more popular if she was serving under a Democratic president.
A White House spokesperson declined to comment on the meeting’s contents to the Times when contacted.
Some close to the president have questioned why Thomas was given access to the president as the wife of a sitting Supreme Court justice, and reportedly told the Times that the meeting was inappropriate.
Thomas was criticized last month after she was revealed to have made social media postings calling Parkland, Fla., school shooting survivors a threat to the country and alleged that Democrats committed voter fraud during the 2018 midterms.
In a statement, the nonpartisan Supreme Court watchdog Fix the Court called on Justice Thomas to recuse himself from issues around which his wife has focused her lobbying work due to her proximity to the president.
“Husbands & wives often have differing political views, but given the frequent counsel Justice Thomas has acknowledged he receives from his wife & the increased regularity with which Ginni has staked out positions on issues before SCOTUS we’ve reached a tipping point & Justice Thomas should seriously consider recusal in order to safeguard the integrity of the judiciary.” FTC’s Gabe Roth wrote.
This article was updated at 4:55 p.m. on 1/30/2019.