Trump: 'Prepared' to nominate new Supreme Court justice if Alito, Thomas retire

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Hill

04/15/26 8:51 AM ET


President Trump said he is “prepared” to name another justice to the Supreme Court if one of the older members retires. No justice has suggested that they would be stepping down from their lifetime appointments, but there has been speculation surrounding Justice Samuel Alito, 76, who was hospitalized in March.

“It could be two, could be three, could be one. I don’t know — I’m prepared to do it,” he told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo in an interview that aired Wednesday. Trump praised Justice Alito, calling him “one of the great justices of all time.” “Justice Alito is an unbelievable justice and a brilliant justice and he gets the country,” Trump said. “He does what’s right for the country.”

Justice Clarence Thomas, 77, is another conservative justice to watch, though there has been less speculation about his retirement. Trump said he has a shortlist of people he would nominate to the Supreme Court but added that he was not sure there would be an opening by the end of the year. The president has reportedly been interested in naming Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to the court.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Tuesday that the GOP would be prepared to confirm a Supreme Court vacancy if one opened before the midterms, according to Politico. It would be ideal for the administration to get its Supreme Court pick in before the midterms while Republicans still maintain the Senate.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5831975-trump-prepared-name-supreme-justice/

---

Absolutely no comment but this was expected and Harris/Walz warned and warned but a whole lot didn't listen or care.

[CousinIT]

1. Aileen Cannon is about to collect. n/t

[BumRushDaShow]

7. He's looking at Carnival Cruz, who was in the same Harvard Law class as Ketanji Brown Jackson

He is generally "anti-woman". He'll use them as they grovel at his feet to "entertain" him and do his bidding (like Stefanik, Bondi, Noem, and Gabbard) and then will discard them, throwing them under the bus quickly.

[walkingman]

2. I honestly feel like I am living in "hillbillyville".

[bluestarone]

3. "Before midterms" I like that because tells me

They are worried about losing the Senate!! Maybe, just maybe we can increase to 13 after midterms? Really hope so!!

[Blues Heron]

4. Let the people decide!

[walkingman]

5. As a Texan, I wouldn't wish Ted Cruz on anyone.

[marble falls]

6. Nope. TACO falls under the McConnell rule: lame ducks don't get to name Justices. If it was good enough ...

... for Barrack Obama, it's good enough for the sack of pig shit currently in the White House.

https://www.npr.org/2016/03/16/470664561/mcconnell-blocking-supreme-court-nomination-about-a-principle-not-a-person

-snip-

"I believe the overwhelming view of the Republican Conference in the Senate is that this nomination should not be filled, this vacancy should not be filled by this lame duck president," McConnell said.

-snip-

[BumRushDaShow]

9. "TACO falls under the McConnell rule: lame ducks don't get to name Justices."

That only works when THEY control the Senate. And since they DO, we are SOL.

[marble falls]

12. The worst that happens is they replace two shitheads with two lesser shitheads. This isn't over. ...

... particularly since SCOTUS overwhelmingly votes against TACO with with Kavanaugh and Barret voting against TACO.

He has to do this soon, the Senate may well change hands in Nov.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. For sure he would do this

and will give Alito (and Thomas if he doesn't choose to "die on the bench" instead, since he is that onery and stubborn) pardons for all their crimes. Easy peasy unlimited power.

[rampartd]

27. The worst that happens is they replace two shitheads with two younger shitheads. This isn't over. ...

[Bayard]

33. He absolutely, positively, cannot be allowed to put another fanatic in there,

Who doesn't seem to care much about upholding the Constitution. Not ONE more!

[BumRushDaShow]

37. Carnival Cruz's name has come up and he would be a shoo-in

GOPers wanting his arrogant and smarmy ass out of the Senate and 45 giving a nod to the Cuban communities that supported him (Sotomayor is Puerto Rican).

[Bayard]

40. The only way his name should come up is if someone yacks it up

I thought trump hated him? Like most people.

[BumRushDaShow]

41. 45 was the one who brought his name up

Trump ‘very much interested’ in appointing Ted Cruz to U.S. Supreme Court

(45's 3rd mention of him yesterday, after bringing him up in January and then February)

Cruz was behind the scenes on January 6 as one the architects for a scheme to throw out the results of the 2020 election in selected states via contesting enough of those state results as to declare the entire election as "unresolved" (a repeat of what happened in 1876, which triggered the creation of new laws dealing with "unresolved results" ), and thus send the final decision to the state legislatures to pick the President.

Of course the majority of state legislatures are GOP and they would have picked 45 over Biden, despite Biden receiving the majority of the Electoral and popular vote.

He needs to join Ghouliani and now Eastman, in disbarment land.

[Scrivener7]

8. There better not be a single Democrat voting for anyone he nominates.

And if this all happens after next November and we win the Senate, the Democratic Senators better block his nominees for the next two years.

Also, we just found out Swalwell's actions have been an open secret for years. You can't convince me there aren't a dozen republican Senators in the same position. Now would be a good time to twist some of their arms to vote with Democrats on this, Michael Corleone style. Pooh pooh the idea if you want, but since the alternative would be the demolition of the Supreme Court for a generation, we need to not be dainty in our sensibilities about this.

[kimbutgar]

22. Unfortunately Fetterman will vote for one his insane nominees

[Johonny]

10. Trump is a disaster the country wont recover from

In most of our lifetimes. Electing a criminal moron that doesn't believe in our country's founding principles is a disgrace. Fuck every one of his voters. They have no excuse. Terrible people.

[SSJVegeta]

11. How long can you fillibuster that

[BumRushDaShow]

16. Not much

as it's just a simple majority for confirmation and recall how quick Comey-Barrett was nominated and confirmed (in a month).

That was done a week before the election when Democrats actually took back seats in the Senate and brought it to a "tie" (where we finally took control of the Committees due to having a (D) VP when Biden was elected, making her a "tie breaker" for votes),

Amy Coney Barrett Confirmed To Supreme Court, Takes Constitutional Oath

October 26, 2020 8:07 PM ET

(snip)

While Senate Democrats tried to slow down the confirmation process of Trump's third Supreme Court nominee with various procedural maneuvers, the fact that Republicans control the Senate has always meant a Barrett confirmation was all but promised.

And it's bad enough that he has 2 more years in office. That's why the WARNING, which was ignored by selfish-ass people across the spectrum.

[SSJVegeta]

19. So basically we gotta take 66 senate seats and 290 house seats

Impeach the newly appointed justices or add seats to the supreme court.

...or just impeach the prez and vp then make Jeffries president.

Or all of the above?


Easy peasy

[BumRushDaShow]

30. Yup.

Although there aren't enough Senate seats up to do that much of a pickup with us needing to win 9 (R) seats for that scenario (and only ~1/3rd of the Senate is up each election cycle, with some who are obviously our own seats that we are defending).

[SSJVegeta]

36. There are enough senate seats to do that

Still we would need to win all but 2 or 3 of all the Senate seats up for election

[BumRushDaShow]

38. There are 33 seats up

Here is the breakdown - https://www.270towin.com/news/2025/01/03/introducing-2026-senate-interactive-map_1688.html



We are hoping to get 4 "competitive" (R) seats (ME, NC, IA, OH). There are 2 others that could add on (MT & AK).

We have 13 of the 33 that are (D)s.

I know some keep staring at TX but I don't think that is happening. Too much heartbreak after O'Rourke and Allred losses.

[SSJVegeta]

39. Oh yeah. Realistically its an uphill battle at best.

But if anything as crazy as one party winning nearly all the seats up for grabs ever happens, it'll be this year.

[Omnipresent]

32. Like crawling uphill over broken glass.

As long as it’s on a high road.

[jgmiller]

14. I always think, could anyone be worse that Thomas or Alito?

I mean with this circus yes of course there could be worse picks but in the end if either of those two retired the replacement would just be rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The only reason Trump keeps floating this is because he wants to be able to say he appointed 5 or more judges to the court. If he gets both of them to retire at once then he's got his 5. The thing is both of those guys think they are the only thing standing in the way everyone in the US being required to change gender or some other MAGA fever dream.

[Dave Bowman]

15. At this point he would nominate a horse.

[intheflow]

18. He does remind me of a certain Roman emperor...

[Bayard]

34. No way

Horses are forgiving and intelligent, and could care less about politics. Carrots on the other hand......

[dutch777]

17. If after the midterms, hopefully we control the Senate and can stonewall nominees like McConnell did.

[cab67]

21. That won't work until January, when the next Congress is sworn in.

They'll try to ram it through before then.

[WestMichRad]

28. Yes they would.

[cab67]

20. They'll absolutely retire if Democrats take the Senate in November.

[radicalleft]

23. It sickens me to think that this asshole

Who has already appointed three could potentially appoint 2 more...5 nutjob justices by a reality show rapist pedophile.

[Solly Mack]

24. Nauseating thought.

[mdbl]

25. This is news?

Sounds like trivial propaganda to me.

[ToxMarz]

26. Yeah, kind of like 'and in other news, water is wet!'

[eringer]

29. Don't hold your breath waiting for Thomas to Retire

You can sure buy him out of his seat. Just get one of your crooked billionaires to sell him 5 percent of a professional sports team with no money down and then buy it back for $60 million after he puts his paperwork in. It worked for George W. Bush when he needed money to steal the Presudency.

[ouija]

31. The next Democratic nominee should expand the SC to 13

[underpants]

35. Clarence gets no comment.