Supreme Court Justice Ted Cruz? President Trump Reveals SCOTUS Shortlist

You can also view Trump announcing his shortlist below:

Aside from Ted Cruz, other names on the shortlist include Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley.

Politico has more details:

President Donald Trump on Wednesday added 20 names to his existing list of 25 potential picks to fill a future Supreme Court vacancy, including Republican Sens. Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley. By doing so, Trump reprised a strategy that many credit with bringing skeptical social conservatives into the fold in 2016 and paving the way for his upset victory over Hillary Clinton.

Calling the appointment of Supreme Court justices “the most important decision a president can make,” the president cast the decision to release his potential picks up front as an obligation White House hopefuls have to their voters, though he was the first candidate to do so, in 2016.

“Our cherished rights are at risk,” Trump said from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House, speaking of the November election. In his blatant play to win over conservatives who may have been alienated throughout his first term in office, Trump asserted Democrats are at the forefront of an “extreme movement” that, if “granted a majority on the Supreme Court, will fundamentally transform America without a single vote of Congress.”

The “radical justices” appointed by a hypothetical Biden administration, Trump claimed, would “erase the Second Amendment, silence political speech and require taxpayers to fund extreme late-term abortion.” They would also, he asserted, “give unelected bureaucrats the power to destroy millions of jobs” and “remove the words ‘under God’ from the Pledge of Allegiance” — despite Biden’s never having proposed any of those things.

The rest of Trump’s list includes Bridget Bade, a judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron; Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general; Stuart Kyle Duncan, a judge on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Steven Engel, who heads the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice; Noel Francisco, a former solicitor general; James Ho, a judge on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Gregory Katsas, a judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals; Barbara Lagoa, a judge on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Christopher Landau, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico; Carlos Muñiz, a justice on the Florida Supreme Court; Martha Pacold, a judge for the Northern District of Illinois; Peter Phipps, a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Sarah Pitlyk, a judge for the Eastern District of Missouri; Allison Jones Rushing, a judge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; Kate Todd, a deputy White House counsel; and Lawrence VanDyke, a judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Cruz (R-Texas), Hawley (R-Mo.) and Cotton (R-Ark.), all of whom were vocal critics of Trump‘s high-profile Supreme Court losses this summer, join one other hardline conservative, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, on Trump’s most recent list.

President Trump has already successfully nominated two Supreme Court justices.

If elected for a 2nd term, it is widely believed that Trump may have to fill up to two vacancies.

Already, Trump's shortlist is stirring up social media.

Trump said that the new names will not replace his current list.

Rather, they will be added to the previous list, which includes Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

CNN confirms:

Seizing on a campaign promise, President Donald Trump issued an updated list of 20 potential conservative nominees for the Supreme Court, a move meant to energize his base even though there is no current vacancy on the high court.

The new list includes three Republican senators (Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley) and former US solicitors general Paul Clement and Noel Francisco, as well as judges Trump has nominated to the lower courts.

Trump said the new names would be added to previous lists that include Judges Amy Coney Barrett and Amul Thapar, who are considered frontrunners should a vacancy arise.

The announcement highlights an issue the President believes has been one of his greatest accomplishments: changing the face of judiciary. As of Wednesday, Trump has appointed 205 federal judges including two Supreme Court nominees, according to a spokeswoman for the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"Apart from matters of war and peace, the nomination of a Supreme Court justice is the most important decision an American president can make," Trump said.

Trump repeatedly attacked Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who has not released a similar list.

"Joe Biden has refused to release his list perhaps because he knows the names are so extremely far left that they could never withstand public scrutiny or receive acceptance," Trump said.

"Our cherished rights are at risk including the right to life and our great second amendment," Trump added.

Last July, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87, announced that she was being treated for her fifth bout of cancer. In addition, Justice Stephen Breyer is 82 years old, Clarence Thomas is 72 and Samuel Alito is 70.

Underscoring the political stakes, Trump's announcement came hours after news broke that the President, in a series of interviews with Bob Woodward, admitted he knew weeks before the first confirmed US coronavirus death that the virus was dangerous, airborne and highly contagious, despite his public statements to the contrary.

Trump urged reporters to ask questions about the Supreme Court nominees, but none were asked and the President instead spoke about the Woodward book.

President Trump has been extremely transparent when it comes to the Supreme Court.

He has published shortlists in advance.

And both times he has had to nominate a judge, he has honored his word by picking only from that shortlist!