The Ginsburg-Trump Smackdown Is On

It doesn't take much to get on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's bad side. Among the long list of things he has insulted are Macy's department store, the Neil Young song "Rockin' in the Free World," and the entire state of New Jersey.

However, now Trump has a new enemy in Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, after she publicly expressed fear of a Trump presidency in an interview published Sunday in The New York Times.

"I can't imagine what this place would be -- I can't imagine what the country would be -- with Donald Trump as our president," Ginsburg told the paper. She added, "For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be -- I don't even want to contemplate that."

It reminded her of something her husband, Martin D. Ginsburg, a prominent tax lawyer who died in 2010, would have said.

"'Now it's time for us to move to New Zealand,'" Justice Ginsburg said, smiling ruefully.

When Trump got wind of Ginsburg's comments, he told the paper he was shocked. She is far from the first to discuss leaving the country if Trump wins, but he was outraged. "I think it's highly inappropriate that a United States Supreme Court judge gets involved in a political campaign, frankly," Trump told the Timesin an article published today. "I think it's a disgrace to the court and I think she should apologize to the court. I couldn't believe it when I saw it."

What Trump seems to forget is that Supreme Court justices are paid precisely to give opinions and Ginsburg is known as one of the more liberal justices.

"That she should be saying that? It's so beneath the court for her to be making statements like that. It only energizes my base even more. And I would hope that she would get off the court as soon as possible," he told the Times.

Supreme Court justices, however, are appointed for life, so there is little Trump can do to remove her from her position, even if he were elected president.

In an interview with CNN late Monday, Ginsburg expressed no desire to rescind her statements about Trump. "He is a faker," she told the news channel. "He has no consistency about him. He says whatever comes into his head at the moment. He really has an ego. ... How has he gotten away with not turning over his tax returns? The press seems to be very gentle with him on that."