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By Gabe Whisnant
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President Donald Trump floated the name of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas as a future Supreme Court justice nominee during Wednesday's "Trump accounts" speech.
The president said, with Cruz in the crowd at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, "Because it's hard to get people approved ... He's a brilliant legal name, he's a brilliant man. If I nominate Ted Cruz for the United States Supreme Court, I will get 100 percent of the vote. The Democrats will vote for him because they want to get him the hell out [of the Senate]. And the Republicans will vote for him because they want to get him the hell out, too."
Ted Cruz Reacts to Trump's Supreme Court Call-Out
Cruz said he has repeatedly told President Trump he would not accept a Supreme Court nomination, even though the two have discussed the court during past vacancies. Cruz said being considered for the bench is “a high honor,” but he believes a federal judge must stay out of political and policy battles.
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“A principled federal judge stays out of policy fights and stays out of political fights,” Cruz said in a statement shared by Mary Elise O’Bar of The Texan News.
He added that he has no interest in doing that, saying, “I want to be right in the middle of them,” which he said is why he belongs in the elected branches of government. Cruz said he remains deeply committed to confirming conservative constitutionalists to the courts but told Trump directly — including in the Oval Office — that his answer to serving himself is “not only no, but hell no.”
Thomas, Alito, Sotomayor Oldest Supreme Court Justices
As of now, there are no announced plans for a sitting Supreme Court justice to retire, and none of the nine members have publicly signaled an intention to step down in the near future.
The current court includes several of the justices with the longest tenures and oldest ages in recent history. The longest-serving member is Clarence Thomas, who was appointed in 1991, followed by Samuel Alito (appointed 2006) and Sonia Sotomayor (appointed 2009). In terms of age, the oldest justices are Thomas, 77, and Samuel Alito, 75 and Sonia Sotomayor (71).
Because Supreme Court justices serve lifetime appointments, it is often years between openings, and nominations typically come only when a justice retires or dies.
In recent decades, justices have typically stepped down in their late 70s to early 80s.
Ted Cruz's Judicial, Political Career: What to Know
Cruz of is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Born in Calgary, Alberta, to a Cuban immigrant father, Cruz moved to Texas as a child and later became a U.S. citizen. After law school, he clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist on the U.S. Supreme Court and worked in private practice before entering government. He also held posts in the George W. Bush administration, including as associate deputy attorney general, and played a key role in Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign during the Florida recount.
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Cruz was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012 after defeating the Republican establishment favorite in the primary, quickly emerging as a leading figure in the party’s conservative wing. He gained national attention for his confrontational style, including a 2013 filibuster opposing the Affordable Care Act. Cruz ran unsuccessfully for president in 2016, finishing second to Donald Trump in the Republican primaries, and later became a close Trump ally. In the Senate, Cruz has focused on issues including tax cuts, immigration enforcement, religious liberty and constitutional limits on federal power, while maintaining a high national profile through media appearances and frequent clashes with Democrats and party leadership. The Texas senator has also been rumored as a 2028 presidential candidate.
Cruz posted after the "Trump Accounts" event, "Trump Accounts are a big damn deal. Honored to have worked with @altcap to draft this legislation, get it into the Working Families Tax Cut Act, and then pass it into law. Thank you President Trump for signing this historic investment in America’s children into law."
Updates: 1/28/26, 6:34 p.m. ET: This article was updated with new information and remarks.
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