By Jack Phillips

President Donald Trump in an interview that was aired Wednesday said he is ready to name replacements for any Supreme Court justice should they retire.

“It could be two, could be three, could be one. I don’t know—I’m prepared to do it,” he told Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo in an interview that was aired on Wednesday morning, referring to the high court justices when she asked Trump about speculation that they would step down.

The president also praised Justice Samuel Alito, describing him as “one of the great justices of all time.”

“Justice Alito is an unbelievable justice and a brilliant justice and he gets the country,” he added. “He does what’s right for the country.”

“So you don’t know if you’re going to be naming, putting another nomination forward?” Bartiromo asked the president later in the interview.

“It’s possible,” Trump said. “You know, in theory. In theory, it’s two or three, they tell me.”

Trump did not provide the names of those whom he might nominate to replace justices such as Alito, 76, who was nominated by former President George W. Bush in 2006 to replace former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

There has also been speculation that Justice Clarence Thomas, 77, may retire due to his age. Neither Alito nor Thomas have publicly signaled whether they are preparing to retire.

Trump noted that former Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg held her seat despite her age.

“You reach a certain age, and you give up your seat to a—if you have the president. Well, look, it happens to Justice Ginsburg. She was not exactly a young woman,” he told Fox. “They had a Democrat who could have appointed a liberal justice,” Trump added, referring to former President Barack Obama.

Elaborating, Trump said that being a Supreme Court justice is “probably not easy to give up for people,” adding that “people are very angry at her because I got to appoint” her replacement.

Ginsburg was urged to step down during Obama’s second term while Democrats controlled the Senate, the body that confirms Supreme Court justices. She declined to do so and passed away at the age of 87 during the latter part of Trump’s first term, in September 2020, which allowed Trump to nominate current Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the bench.

During his first term in office, in addition to Barrett, Trump successfully nominated Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Gorsuch was nominated to fill Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat after Scalia’s death, and Kavanaugh was nominated after Justice Anthony Kennedy retired.

Notably, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in 2016 blocked Obama’s nomination of then-Circuit Court Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court to succeed Scalia. Garland later became attorney general under former President Joe Biden.

The Epoch Times contacted the Supreme Court for comment Wednesday but did not hear back by publication time.