Former Obama aide warns of potential Trump victory's impact on Supreme Court
Dan Pfeiffer, a former Obama adviser, on Tuesday warned the U.S. Supreme Court could be left with a "MAGA majority" should former President Trump win reelection in November.
Pfeiffer predicted Trump will "almost certainly" get to appoint two more Supreme Court justices in addition to the three he already appointed during his first term — Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh.
"By the end of Trump's second term — were he to win — [Justice Clarence] Thomas will be 82, [Justice Samuel] Alito will be 78," Pfeiffer said on a recent episode of "Pod Save America."
He added Thomas and Alito are "definitely retiring," and noted Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was appointed by Obama, will be 72 at the end of the next presidential administration.
“If he gets two appointments, that means he will have appointed five Supreme Court Justices, all of whom will be around or below the age of 60 when he leaves office,” he said. "That is a MAGA court majority that will rule for decades," in reference to Trump's "Make America Great Again," political movement.
"We can win the next however many presidential elections and absent something short of extraordinary happening, Trump's fingerprint will be all over the Supreme Court," Pfeiffer added.
The other justices presiding on the Supreme Court are Chief Justice John Roberts, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, Elena Kagan, an Obama appointee, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, whom President Biden most recently appointed.
Pfeiffer argued the Democrats should mimic a strategy used by Republicans in the 2016 election, in which some reluctant GOP voters were pushed to vote for Trump due to the Supreme Court seat left vacant by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia prior to the election.
"I think we should make this a big issue and we know this works," he said, adding later, "Republicans who did not like Trump, at the last minute, were willing to hold their nose and vote for Trump because they care about the Supreme Court. So, I think we can do that in reverse," he said.
The Hill reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
Recent polling shows the race between Trump and Biden is razor thin, with the former president having a 1 percent lead over the incumbent, according to a polling index by The Hill/Decision Desk HQ.