Missourians can be assured President Trump’s four federal judge nominees for the state are true conservatives – but should be alarmed at the current head of the country’s 250th birthday celebration, says U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt.

Citing her conflicted feelings for the U.S., Schmitt sent a letter to President Trump on Tuesday urging him to replace Biden appointee Rosie Rios as chair of the U.S. Semi-Quincentennial Commission, which is already planning the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary on July 4th, 2026.

As for the judicial nominees, Schmitt speaks with experience about their qualifications and judicial temperaments: After all, they all previously served under him.

“All four nominees worked for me in the Missouri Attorney General’s office and together we fought each day for Missourians across our state,” Schmitt said in a press release this week lauding the president’s picks.

“President Trump’s historic transformation of our federal judiciary was among the greatest successes of his first term, and with these well qualified, proven nominees President Trump is continuing that legacy.”

The nominees, who will face confirmation hearings this summer, are:

• Joshua Divine, current Missouri solicitor general and former chief counsel to Missouri’s other U.S. senator, Josh Hawley. Divine graduated Yale Law School and clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, as well as for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Maria Lanahan, Divine’s principal deputy solicitor general. She graduated the University of Chicago School of Law and clerked for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Current Missouri Court of Appeals Judge Cristian Stevens, a former first assistant attorney general for Missouri. He graduated the University of Missouri School of Law and clerked for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Zachary Bluestone, currently assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Missouri and former Missouri deputy solicitor general. He graduated Harvard Law School and clerked for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In an exclusive interview with The Heartlander Thursday, Schmitt says he hopes the coming confirmation hearings won’t be contentious, as “I don’t know if the Democrats can keep swinging at everything here. But we’ll see.”

Any more Amy Coney Barretts?

To conservatives angered at the surprisingly liberal bent of Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Schmitt assures the four new Trump nominees for Missouri will be true conservatives.

“I knew all along that when President Trump would win, that these would be very important positions to fill, and we were very deliberate about who we were going to support to take these four spots,” Schmitt tells The Heartlander. “And I feel very comfortable that they’ll be rule-of-law judges – that they’re conservative, certainly, but they are going to treat people fairly in front of them. 

“And a lot of those cases, honestly, in St. Louis, you’re going to be dealing with violent crime. There’s a lot of things we did when I was AG. We partnered with federal prosecutors in the Safer Streets Initiative. We were bringing a lot of carjacking cases, and you want to have judges that, again, are going to mete out punishment that’s commensurate with the crime. I think all four of them will do that. …

“These are four great nominees, really all home runs. All of them worked with me in some capacity and length of time when I was Missouri’s attorney general, and I’m really proud of that. “They’re great choices, and all of them I think are going to evaluate the facts and the law on their own merits in each individual case and interpret the law as it’s written, not how they want it to be. 

“And I think that’s really important. You see that kind of abuse happening across the country.”

The four Missouri judicial appointments are among Trump’s first in his second term, which Schmitt calls a “pretty significant” statement about the importance of the state to the federal bench.

“I think it’s a testament to how we worked really hard to get quality nominees in front of the president. And he made a great decision here.”

More at home in Mexico?

Not such a great decision, he says, is to maintain the Biden-appointed Rios as chair of the country’s 250th birthday extravaganza next year.

Indeed, The Federalist savaged the choice, noting Rios’ past animus for Trump himself and her self-expressed divided feelings between the U.S. and Mexico.

“California, where I was born and raised, was Mexico,” The Federalist quoted Rios as saying. “People tend to forget that, that we are in the same land, and that was Mexico.” 

The Federalist notes Rios said she felt “much more … at home” in Mexico, “while lamenting that Trump doesn’t ‘defend the Mexicans.’”

“In a separate interview with Animal Politico,” writes The Federalist, “Rios stated: ‘Mexico is my country, just like the United States; my family is here, my blood is here. I can’t choose between the two countries; I’m part of both.’

“America’s 250th birthday is not the time for celebrating foreign countries instead of our own,” The Federalist opines. “As Theodore Roosevelt warned nearly a century ago: ‘There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism.’

“‘A hyphenated American is not an American at all,’ he said. ‘The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin … would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities …’”

When asked to name her favorite Founding Fathers, she pivoted to talking about “our founding mothers … all the women who have made significant contributions to our history, specifically Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony.”

‘Cheap partisan attacks’

Schmitt is urging the president to replace her.

“Ms. Rios has a track record of extreme partisan bias against you and your administration,” Schmitt wrote to Trump. “In July 2016, she insisted that “nothing good” could come from your presidential candidacy. …

“As we get closer to the anniversary, her continued role as chair of the committee could serve as a detriment to this historic celebration. As President, you have the authority to ensure that this important commission is led by someone who does not give in to cheap partisan attacks on you and your administration’s priorities.”

Schmitt tells The Heartlander the head of the country’s milestone birthday celebration shouldn’t be someone who “celebrates being Mexican as much as American,” and who has been so virulently critical of its current president.

“I just think it’s an unnecessary distraction. President Trump should have somebody in that role that he has full faith and confidence in. 

“Joe Biden put her in, replacing somebody that President Trump had [appointed] previously. So, it would not be unusual at all for President Trump to replace this person.  

“And of course, I sent a letter earlier this week asking him to do just that, making sure he’s aware of these statements that she’s made in the past.”

Imbalanced trade since WWII

On Trump’s announcement of a trade deal with the United Kingdom Thursday, Schmitt said that agreement along with pending deals with some 17 other nations will be “a net positive because for a long time, our leaders just simply accepted the idea that we were going to be treated unfairly by other countries – in kind of a vestige of a bygone era when Europe and Japan were trying to get back on their feet. 

“Times have changed, and our trade policies should change too. So, I’m very encouraged by the progress.”