President Trump told a Texas crowd he would name Sen. Ted Cruz to the Supreme Court if a seat opens, joking both parties would confirm him just to clear him out of the Senate.
At a midterm campaign rally in Lubbock on Oct. 27, President Donald Trump floated Texas Sen. Ted Cruz as his pick for the next opening on the nation’s high court and framed the idea as a free confirmation win.
USA TODAY reported that Trump cast the pitch as a practical answer to the usual fight over a high-court nominee, while Cruz sat in the front row supporting Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton.
Trump said he would not need to work the phones. He said Democrats and Republicans alike would vote yes.
Trump told the Lubbock crowd he had solved the confirmation problem that usually stalls a Supreme Court pick.
He laid out the plan in plain terms.
President Trump said:
"I said, 'I have an answer to not being able to get it past the Democrats or the Republicans together,'"
He followed with the nomination itself.
Trump said:
"I would pick Ted Cruz to be the next Supreme Court justice, and I wouldn't have to worry about it. I wouldn't have to make a phone call."
Then came the joke that drove the line. Trump argued Democrats would back Cruz because they want him gone, and Republicans would do the same for the same reason.
Trump said:
"The Democrats will 100% vote for it because they hate the guy and the want to get rid of him,"
He finished the thought on Republican votes and the result he expects.
Trump said:
"And the Republicans would 100% vote for it because they can't stand him, they would like to get rid of him. So I'd get 100% of the vote, and he would be a Supreme Court justice and he'd do a great job."
Trump also called Cruz brilliant and a brilliant lawyer. Cruz laughed and smiled from his front-row seat as the president made the case.
Cruz has repeatedly said he is not interested in a judgeship. In September he told the Houston Chronicle he does not want that role.
Cruz said:
"I don't want to be a judge,"
That stance matters. Cruz is a third-term Texas senator, age 55, and a conservative force in the Senate. He has made no secret of interest in a 2028 presidential run. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are also viewed as likely contenders for that nomination.
A Supreme Court seat is a lifetime post. A White House bid is a different path. Cruz’s own words put the two on a collision course if a vacancy ever arrives.
Cruz’s résumé is not light. He graduated from Harvard Law School and clerked for then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist. From 2008 to 2013 he served as solicitor general of Texas and argued multiple cases before the Supreme Court.
He ran against Trump for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. After that fight he became one of Trump’s strongest allies in the Senate. The Lubbock line fits a pattern: Trump has floated Cruz for the Court before.
Trump already placed three justices in his first term, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. He has openly expressed regret over those picks after they sided against his administration in high-profile rulings. A fourth nomination across two White House terms would give him another chance to shape the Court.
Nothing in the current picture locks in an opening. In August, Justice Samuel Alito said he plans to remain on the bench through at least the next session. It remains unclear whether Trump will get a chance to name a fourth justice.
The Lubbock remarks came at a campaign stop for Paxton, not at a judicial announcement. An Oct. 7 rally at Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio had already put Trump, Paxton, and Cruz on the same stage. The Oct. 27 event turned the Court talk into a punch line with a serious edge: name a proven conservative lawyer senators from both parties might rather see in robes than on the floor.
Cruz’s record as a constitutional advocate is why conservatives hear the idea and do not laugh it off. His public refusal of a judgeship is why the line still reads as a rally riff more than a locked-in succession plan. Trump put the name out anyway, in front of a Texas crowd, with a confirmation theory attached.
When a president names a fighter who knows the Court from the counsel table, voters get a clear signal about the kind of justice he wants, even if the seat is not open yet.
