Federalist Society Luminary Leonard Leo Is the Latest to Incur Trump's Wrath

Across his social media accounts, Donald Trump can attack targets as big as the pope or as small as regular people. That's always been his M.O., and many are now wondering about one of the president's more recent targets, Leonard Leo.

If you've never heard of Leonard Leo, you're not alone. Although he is one of the most powerful people in Conservative politics, he has worked hard to make sure that his influence is largely behind the scenes. Here's what we know about who he is, and why Trump went after him.

According to Pro Publica, Leonard Leo is an influential voice in conservative politics, thanks in large part to his longstanding role inside the Federalist Society. The Federalist Society, which was first founded in the 1980s, is an organization that was designed to foster Conservative legal minds with the goal of eventually placing them on the Supreme Court. Leo was a vice president of the organization for years, but stepped back in 2020.

One of Leo and the Federalist Society's broad goals was ensuring that judges who were appointed to courts could be relied on to issue Conservative-aligned rulings, and they've been hugely successful on that front. The entire Supreme Court has now been reshaped in the image of the Federalist Society.

In fact, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh were all selected from a list that Leo "personally curated," per NPR.

Outside of the Federalist Society, though, Leo is also building a broader network of conservative organizations, according to a 2022 New York Times report. Many of those groups are well-funded and have put billions of dollars towards a variety of conservative causes over the years.

Leo, then, has been hugely influential in both shaping the Supreme Court and building the money apparatus that supports Republican politics.

You might think, given Leo's priorities, that Trump would find him to be a natural ally. And while that was true for much of Trump's political career, the president has apparently soured on Leo more recently because of his list of judicial nominees.

“I was new to Washington, and it was suggested that I use The Federalist Society as a recommending source on Judges,” Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.

“I did so, openly and freely, but then realized that they were under the thumb of a real ‘sleazebag’ named Leonard Leo, a bad person who, in his own way, probably hates America, and obviously has his own separate ambitions," he continued. "He openly brags how he controls Judges, and even Justices of the United States Supreme Court — I hope that is not so, and don’t believe it is! In any event, Leo left The Federalist Society to do his own ‘thing.’

"I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations. This is something that cannot be forgotten! With all of that being said, I am very proud of many of our picks, but very disappointed in others," he added. It seems even Federalist Society lists are not foolproof.