Donald Trump has floated the prospect of reshaping the Supreme Court again, suggesting that some of its most senior conservative justices should step aside because of their age.
Amid speculation about the futures of justices Samuel Alito, 76, and Clarence Thomas, 77, Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo asked Trump on Tuesday if he had a shortlist of people to nominate to the bench, should there soon be a vacancy.
“I do,” the 79-year-old said, later adding: “It could be two, could be three, could be one. I don’t know—I’m prepared to do it."
While praising Alito as one of the “greatest justices of all time,” Trump went on to say that “there’s a theory that if you reach a certain age,” people should retire from the bench to make way for a new appointee with similar political leanings.
“You make the case that, at a certain time, you give it up so that you can have a justice (on the same side)… so that your ideology, your policies, your everything, would be of the kind that we like,” Trump said.
“But it’s probably not easy to give up for people, you know, when they reach a certain age,” he added.
“(Ruth Bader) Ginsburg could not do it, and she really hurt herself within the Democrat Party. People are very angry at her because I got to appoint people instead of Biden.”
Ginsburg, a liberal icon, died in September 2020 at the age of 87 after refusing to retire from the bench, where Supreme Court justices enjoy lifetime appointments.
Her death allowed Trump to nominate Amy Coney Barrett just weeks before the presidential election, cementing a 6–3 conservative majority.
Since then, the court has redefined American life in profound ways, most notably by overturning Roe v. Wade, which ended the federal right to abortion and triggered a wave of state bans and restrictions.
Over the past few years, the court has also expanded gun rights and religious freedoms, curbed federal regulatory power and dismantled affirmative action policies in college admissions.
Trump also nominated justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch in his first term. They now make up the conservative majority alongside Chief Justice John Roberts, Barrett, Alito and Thomas.
But things have not always gone Trump’s way—earlier this year, for instance, Gorsuch, Barrett and Roberts enraged the president by siding with the three liberal justices to strike down his signature tariff policy.
And this month, Trump became the first sitting president to attend oral arguments at the court, but stormed out after some of his own conservative justices did not appear convinced by his bid to upend birthright citizenship.
“We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow “Birthright” Citizenship!" he posted on Truth Social after returning to the White House, ignoring the fact that dozens of countries confer citizenship at birth with no conditions.
The president’s latest remarks have revived debate over the political consequences of late-term judicial retirements.
Thomas, appointed in 1991 by President George H. W. Bush, is the longest-serving current justice and a leading voice for originalist constitutional interpretation.
Alito, nominated in 2006 by George W. Bush, has authored or joined major rulings expanding religious liberty claims and limiting federal regulatory authority.
But it was recently revealed that Alito was taken to a hospital after becoming ill at a Federalist Society dinner in Philadelphia.
The justice was evaluated and administered fluids for dehydration before returning to his home in Virginia the same night with his security team.
This fueled speculation over whether he might retire, but so far, he has refused to answer journalists’ questions on the subject.
