Donald Trump’s attempt to unseat a prominent black congressman suffers a major court defeat. Then he breaks his silence: ‘horrible, ridiculous’

A legal fight that began after Missouri Republicans passed a new congressional map last September has now dealt Donald Trump and the GOP a major setback. As MS NOW reports, at the center of it sits a Kansas City congressional seat Republicans spent months trying to redraw out of Democratic hands, part of a broader push in several GOP-led states to protect a House majority that keeps looking shakier the closer the midterms get.

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the new congressional map passed by Republican lawmakers cannot be used this November, restoring the old district lines instead. The decision effectively rescues Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s 5th District, the longtime Democratic stronghold that GOP mapmakers had split up to make it winnable for Republicans.

Cleaver, Kansas City’s former mayor and a past chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, wasn’t shy about his satisfaction Friday morning, telling MS NOW’s “State of Play” with Peter Alexander, “They brought this on themselves. Look, blaming others will not make Missouri great again.”

The map fight is far from over

Opponents sought to put the new map to a statewide vote, a referendum path that Missouri’s Republican secretary of state, Denny Hoskins, resisted before the dispute landed in front of the state’s justices. Hoskins didn’t soften his tone after the ruling either, saying in a statement that it would “ignite nothing short of a Constitutional crisis.”

Republican officials quickly pushed back against the ruling. Missouri’s Republican attorney general, Catherine Hanaway, wasted little time signaling that her office intends to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, adding another layer to an election fight that could extend beyond the state, as the Trump administration separately pushes the Court to rein in mail-in voting ahead of November.

Trump also weighed in on the ruling on Truth Social. He called the decision “horrible, ridiculous, and unConstitutional,” arguing that redrawing the map so close to the election would disrupt the voting process. He described the ruling as “a Dark Day for ‘Justice’ in Missouri!”

For now, the old lines hold, and Cleaver will run under them this fall. Whether Missouri’s new map ever takes effect is a separate question still headed for voters, who’ll decide it on the same November ballot where control of the House hangs in the balance.