President Donald Trump has suggested that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito is considering retirement, in remarks that appeared to put public pressure on the 76-year-old conservative jurist.
Trump posted on Truth Social alongside a report headlined “Justice Alito confirms he is considering retirement”, writing: “A great man!!! President DJT”.
The intervention followed a rare interview in which Alito said he had considered stepping down this year and expected to revisit the question before the 2027 term.
“It’s something that I think that somebody at my age has to think about every term,” Alito told CBS News. He added: “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.”
Trump has praised Alito while attacking other nominees
Trump has previously described Alito as one of the “Greatest of All Time”, even as he has criticised the three justices he appointed during his first term: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
The President has attacked the trio for ruling against him in major cases during his second term, including disputes over his use of an emergency powers law to impose sweeping global tariffs and his executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship.
He has also made clear that he would welcome the chance to appoint another justice. In a Fox News interview earlier this year, Trump said he was “prepared” to nominate as many as three justices if vacancies arose.
“It’d be nice to say, now I have somebody for 40 years,” he said in April, indicating that his administration had been vetting possible replacements.
Alito has sided with the Trump administration in most Supreme Court cases this year, including cases in which Trump’s own nominees joined decisions against it. However, he stressed that his retirement deliberations were not connected to politics or the current administration.
“It’s too hard to predict what the political situation will be and what any president might do with respect to a replacement,” Alito said.
Justice Clarence Thomas, another conservative appointed by former president George W Bush, has also faced speculation over his future, although less than Alito. Neither the White House nor the Supreme Court’s public affairs office immediately responded to requests for comment.
