The Nomination Is a Joke. The Coverage Is Serious.

A nomination was announced this week. It was a joke. The coverage was serious.

At a campaign rally in Lubbock, Texas, on October 27, President Donald Trump joked that Senator Ted Cruz would be his choice for the next Supreme Court vacancy, predicting a unanimous confirmation because Democrats and Republicans alike would welcome Cruz's departure from the Senate. Cruz, sitting in the front row, laughed and smiled. There is currently no vacancy on the nine-member court, and Cruz has repeatedly said he does not want to be a judge — most recently telling the Houston Chronicle in September, 'I don't want to be a judge.'

None of that slowed the news cycle. The joke was reported with the straight face of a personnel announcement: Trump floats, Trump pitches, Trump reveals. The bit — a president needling a senator about his popularity with his own colleagues — was filed as if it were a shortlist.

That is the whole story, and it is the joke twice over. The nomination is a joke. The coverage is serious. Somewhere, a Senate scheduler is quietly preparing confirmation hearings for the punchline.

The underlying reporting is filed in the Evidence Locker: USA Today (Oct. 28, 2026); Newsmax (Oct. 27, 2026).