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President Trump teased the idea of nominating Senator Ted Cruz to the Supreme Court, praising the Texas Republican and his former presidential opponent as a ‘brilliant’ guy and lawyer.
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Trump → sign → guy
Speaking at a campaign rally Tuesday night in Lubbock, Texas, Trump jokingly contrasted Cruz with the three conservatives he nominated to the high court during his first term - Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.
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he → speak → term
‘I picked three Supreme Court justices, and it’s very hard to get them approved,’ Trump said.
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Trump → pick → justices
He went on to praise Cruz as a 'brilliant guy, brilliant lawyer,’ whom he noted ‘went to law school - top student, top credentials, everything.’
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he → go → school
But unlike his other picks, Trump jokingly predicted, Cruz would have a much easier path to confirmation.
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Cruz → predict → confirmation
Democrats would ‘100 percent’ support his confirmation to the high court, he said because ‘they hate the guy and want to get rid of him.
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they → support → him
Trump ruthlessly branded Cruz with the moniker, 'Lyin' Ted' in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election - a nickname he used repeatedly to insult his onetime primary opponent before Cruz eventually dropped from the race.
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Cruz → brand → race
Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, is seen boarding Air Force One alongside President Donald Trump.
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Cruz → see → Trump
Trump has stumped for down-ballot candidates, including Ken Paxton, in a multi-state campaign blitz ahead of the midterms
Trump and Cruz are seen at the White House before departing for a campaign event in San Antonio
Trump dances during a campaign rally at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Texas
Trump refrained from the jabs during the Texas rally - instead opting to label Cruz as 'brilliant' on several different occasions.
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Trump → stump → occasions
He then added, of Cruz's hypothetical Supreme Court nomination, that 'Republicans would 100 percent vote for it because they can’t stand him,’ Trump said.
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Trump → add → him
‘They would like to get rid of him.’
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They → like → him
‘So I’d get 100 percent of the vote, and he’d be a Supreme Court justice, and he would do a great job,’ Trump said.
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Trump → get → job
The president's quips come after Justice Samuel Alito said in a rare public interview this month that he had weighed retiring this year, and plans to do so again in 2027.
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he → come → 2027
'It’s something that I think that somebody at my age has to think about every term,' Alito told CBS News.
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Alito → ’ → News
'But I thought that I could still make a valuable contribution, which is why I became a justice and a judge in the first place,' he added.
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he → think → place
Trump has praised Alito - who has sided with the president in more cases than any other justice - as one of the 'Greatest of All Time.'
Still, the president has not been shy about his desire to nominate a fourth Supreme Court justice to the bench, should the opportunity arise.
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opportunity → praise → bench
Trump has very publicly lashed out at his own nominees for ruling against him in cases involving some of his biggest political priorities in his second term - including invalidating his sweeping tariff regime, blocking his bid to end birthright citizenship, and rejecting his effort to restrict mail-in voting.
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Trump → lash → voting
In each of these instances, Trump has taken to Truth Social to dress down his conservative nominees, whom he blasted in September as ‘merely a shell of their original selves’ and not being ‘true’ to him in their rulings.
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he → take → rulings
Trump has frequently taken to Truth Social to dress down his conservative nominees, whom he blasted in September as ‘merely a shell of their original selves’ and not being ‘true’ to him in their rulings.
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he → take → rulings
‘These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court,’ Trump said last month.
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Trump → interview → Court
‘These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court,’ Trump said last month.
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Trump → interview → Court
The president has frequently floated Cruz’s name to fill a potential slot on the bench, should the opportunity arise.
But the Texas lawmaker has no desire to serve on the bench.
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lawmaker → float → bench
Cruz told attendees at a Wall Street Journal event earlier this year that Trump had spoken to him ‘seriously’ during his first term about filling each of the three Supreme Court vacancies when they opened up.
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they → tell → vacancies
Cruz, for his part, has no desire to serve on the high court - telling attendees at a Wall Street Journal event earlier this year that Trump had spoken to him ‘seriously’ during his first term about filling each of the three Supreme Court vacancies when they opened up.
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they → have → vacancies
Each time, Cruz recounted, ‘I said no - because I don’t want to be out of the arena of the political battle.’
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I → recount → battle
The Aporia
