Trump jokes at Lubbock rally that Ted Cruz would be his next Supreme Court pick

President Trump said Tuesday that Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, would be his choice for the next Supreme Court vacancy. He made the remark at a midterm rally in Lubbock, Texas, and framed it as a joke about Cruz's standing in the Senate ¹.

Trump called Cruz a “brilliant lawyer” and said he had found a way around the often-contentious confirmation process. He said he picked three Supreme Court justices and found it hard to get them approved ¹.

On tapeC-SPAN · Oct 28

▶1:08

I would pick Ted Cruz to be the next Supreme Court justice.

Trump predicted that Democrats would back Cruz “100 percent” because “they hate the guy and they want to get rid of him.” He said Republicans would also vote yes because they “can’t stand him” ¹.

Not the first time

The Hill reports that Trump has floated Cruz for the court several times, often to poke fun at Cruz's relationships with fellow senators. It says he made a similar joke at a White House event in July about Trump Accounts ¹.

From Channel GOPTrump on the Alaska ballot and the DOJ suitDonald Trump · 223 plays · captioned, with the source named

Another outlet, Meaww, reported that Trump made a version of the remark on July 6. It quoted him saying that Republicans and Democrats alike “want to get him the hell out of the Senate” ².

What Cruz has said

Cruz has said he does not plan to leave the Senate for a lifetime seat on the nation's highest court. At an April event hosted by The Wall Street Journal, he said Trump had spoken to him “seriously” about filling a hypothetical vacancy. He said his priority is policy fights rather than legal battles ¹.

On tapeC-SPAN · Oct 28

▶1:43

In the first Trump term, the president spoke to me seriously about all three vacancies, and three times I said no, because I don’t want to be out of the arena of the political battle

The Hill describes the remarks as a joke about a hypothetical vacancy scenario ¹.

Why it matters

That matters because Supreme Court seats are held for life. Whoever holds the White House and the Senate when a seat opens will shape the court's decisions for decades. Trump's own words show how he thinks about that power: he spoke of getting a nominee “past the Democrats” and of winning “100 percent of the vote” ¹.

The pattern is that a president who treats a lifetime appointment as a punchline is also the one who would make the pick. Voters will not choose a justice on Nov. 3. But they will decide who controls the Senate, which holds confirmation votes on any nominee.

Next steps are simple. The midterm election is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Senate control will determine how hard any future Trump nominee would be to confirm.

The Record

1. Apr 1, 2026Cruz tells a Wall Street Journal event that Trump spoke to him “seriously” about vacancies and that he said no three times in the first term ¹.
2. Jul 6, 2026Trump makes a similar joke about Cruz and the Supreme Court, reported by Meaww ².
3. Oct 27, 2026Trump tells a Lubbock, Texas, rally he would pick Cruz for the next Supreme Court vacancy ¹.

Sources

1. The Hill, “Trump reups calls to put Cruz on Supreme Court in vacancy scenario” (2026-10-28). thehill.com/homenews/administration/6176842-trump-jokes-ted-
2. Meaww, “Trump jokes about appointing Ted Cruz to Supreme Court, says both parties want him out of Senate” (2026-07-06). news.meaww.com/trump-jokes-about-appointing-ted-cruz-to-supr

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