President Trump is Prepared for a SCOTUS Vacancy
President Donald Trump says he is prepared if another vacancy opens on the U.S. Supreme Court, but he made it clear there is one justice he believes would be nearly impossible to replace.
During a lengthy Oval Office interview with Breitbart News on Tuesday evening, Trump addressed speculation surrounding Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito after an inaccurate report briefly suggested the veteran conservative jurist was preparing to retire.
Earlier in the day, NPR legal correspondent Nina Totenberg reported that Alito had announced his retirement following the Supreme Court's final day of opinions for the term. The report was later retracted, and Totenberg publicly apologized to Alito after acknowledging the story was incorrect.
Although the report proved to be false, questions about the future makeup of the Court continue to circulate because of the ages of several justices.
Alito is 76 years old, while Justice Clarence Thomas recently turned 78. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 72, has also been the subject of public discussion regarding her health, fueling speculation that additional vacancies could arise during the next few years.
Asked whether he was prepared for that possibility, Trump said he has already considered the prospect.
"Well I think you know, if you listen to people, there are three potential vacancies for various reasons, so I'm certainly prepared," Trump told Breitbart News. "There are a lot of great people out there who would like to have that position."
Before discussing Alito further, Trump asked whether Totenberg's retirement story had ultimately proven to be false. After being told that NPR had retracted the report and that Totenberg had apologized, Trump reflected on his initial reaction when he first heard the news.
"I actually heard that, and you have to understand you're asking the wrong guy because I'm his single biggest fan," Trump said.
The president praised Alito in personal as well as professional terms.
"He's fantastic," Trump said. "He's one of the most incredible people that I've ever met. He's brilliant. He's so solid and so respected."
Trump acknowledged that, from a political standpoint, replacing a conservative justice with a younger conservative nominee could have long-term implications for the Court.
Having the opportunity to appoint someone who could potentially serve for decades, he said, would ordinarily be viewed as a significant advantage.
At the same time, Trump said Alito's stature on the Court makes the prospect of his retirement difficult to celebrate.
"So I was in one way privileged to be able to pick somebody that would be—I'd love to pick a younger version of him, but there is no younger version of him," Trump said. "There's nobody that is going to be able to do what he does and do it so well."
For Trump, that reality creates what he described as conflicting emotions.
"So in one way I was happy, in one way it was actually sad," he said.
Trump also commented on Justice Clarence Thomas, another member of the Court's conservative wing whose name is occasionally mentioned in discussions about potential retirements, despite there being no public indication that he intends to step down.
"Clarence has been a superstar too," Trump said.
He added that the possibility of replacing either justice represents what he called a "mixed blessing."
"They have been unbelievable, and you know, so you're—it's like a mixed blessing, really," Trump said.
Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices during his first term in office—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—reshaping the Court's ideological balance for a generation. Any additional vacancy during his second term would present another opportunity to influence the Court's direction, potentially extending a conservative majority well into the future.
Even so, Trump's comments suggested that, at least in Alito's case, he views the justice's continued service as preferable to creating another opening.