"Fire him!"

This is how the crowd greeted US President Donald Trump on Thursday, September 24, as he came to pay tribute to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on September 18.

'Vote him out!' Chanted the crowd as the US President, wearing a black mask and accompanied by his wife Melania Trump, meditated behind the coffin of the former US Supreme Court judge, displayed above steps of the highest American jurisdiction.

The Republican billionaire, who has never donned the clothes of unifier since his arrival at the White House, is not used to paying tribute to personalities not on his political side.

Six weeks before the presidential election

If the crowd was not very large, the scene nevertheless testifies to the climate of tension reigning in Washington less than six weeks before the presidential election.

“Honor his wish,” some said in a reference to the dying Supreme Court dean, who did not want to be replaced before the inauguration of a new president in January.

"My dearest wish is not to be replaced until a new president is sworn in," the 87-year-old judge told her granddaughter Clara Spera a few days before her death.

Donald Trump this week questioned the latter's statements.

“I don't know if she (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) said it,” he said, sneering that it sounded like a statement from Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"Impostor"

Without wasting time, the Republican president will initiate the process of the succession of “RBG” on Saturday: he must announce from the White House the name of the judge he wishes to appoint to this very influential post.

Five women, including magistrate Amy Coney Barrett, darling of religious circles, and a conservative judge of Cuban origin, Barbara Lagoa, were shortlisted.

There is little doubt about the outcome of the confirmation vote in Congress: Republican senators hold a majority in the Senate, despite the defection of two elected officials who believe it is better to wait for the November election.

"I think it will go very, very quickly," Donald Trump predicted Thursday morning on Fox Radio.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg died of cancer after serving twenty-seven years on the Supreme Court.

Immediately after her death, the US president praised the judge's "exceptional life".

But their relations have not, far from it, always been appeased.

Breaking with a tradition firmly established within the venerable court, the judge had, during the 2016 campaign, publicly expressed her political preferences.

In an interview, the dean of the Court, appointed by President Bill Clinton, called the Republican candidate an "impostor".

"He has no consistency. He always says whatever crosses his mind. He is really egotistical," she continued.

"She's lost her head. Let her quit!" The real estate mogul reacted on Twitter.

The dean of the Supreme Court later apologized.

And never openly criticized the 45th President of the United States again.

With AFP and Reuters

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