SAN FRANCISCO — One way or the other, President Donald Trump aims to reshape the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

After a federal district judge in San Francisco this week blocked portions of the president's executive order that threatened to withhold federal funds from so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, Trump took to Twitter to lash out at the Ninth Circuit, which would hear any appeal of the case. Trump followed that tweetstorm by joining the call from some Republican members to split the Ninth Circuit in an interview with the Washington Examiner on Wednesday.

But even as the president is criticizing the court, White House officials are working to potentially reshape it through a more traditional method—appointments.