Donald Trump and John Roberts: Two sides of a US judiciary under pressure

FILE PHOTO: Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts arrives before the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Pool via

(Reuters) -For two of the most powerful men in the United States, Donald Trump and John Roberts, it has been a delicate dance from the start.

In 2015, the man who would become the chief executive of the United States assailed the integrity of its chief justice, calling Roberts "disgraceful" and "disappointing" - and, later, an "absolute disaster" - for earlier upholding the Affordable Care Act, the Obamacare law that Trump subsequently sought to repeal.