WASHINGTON — Donald Trump announced Monday that he plans to publicly release a list of 7 to 10 “conservative” judges that “meet the highest standards” that he would appoint to the Supreme Court if elected president.
“I’m going to submit a list of justices, potential justices of the United States Supreme Court, that I will appoint from the list,” Trump said. “I won’t go beyond the list, and I’m going to let people know. Because some people say maybe I’ll appoint a liberal judge. I’m not appointing a liberal judge.”
Trump said the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank is assisting him with the list.
Asked during a press conference about recent reports of anti-Trump conservatives open to backing a third-party challenger in a general election, Trump called that plan a mistake.
“A third party means that the Democrats are going to win, almost certainly,” Trump said at a press conference Monday at his new hotel under construction just down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. “You can’t be that spiteful. You can’t be that spiteful. Because you’ll destroy the country. A third-party would destroy the country.”
Trump also predicted he will “easily” reach the necessary amount of delegates to clinch the Republican nomination for president before the party’s convention.
Trump enters Old Post Office pic.twitter.com/zmVsF0JcIh
— Alex Pappas (@AlexPappas) March 21, 2016
In addition to answering questions about his campaign, the Republican presidential candidate also used the occasion to show off the progress of his soon-to-be opened Trump International Hotel at the Old Post Office and guide more than 100 reporters on a chaotic tour of the ballroom.
Soon-to-be Trump International Hotel down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House pic.twitter.com/HDaAenEMzd
— Alex Pappas (@AlexPappas) March 21, 2016
“I think we’re going to maybe easily make that number of the 1,237,” Trump told reporters, referencing the necessary delegate threshold to win. “We should make it pretty easily based on what I’m seeing. So we won’t have to worry about fighting at a convention.”
At one point, a questioner sitting among reporters identified herself as a veteran and 9-11 survivor. She asked Trump whether he planned to hire veterans at his Trump International Hotel. Trump then invited her up to the podium and introduced her to an employee he said could help her with a job.
Inside the under-renovation Old Post Office, where Trump is about to talk to the press pic.twitter.com/fW0T3BE6RY
— Alex Pappas (@AlexPappas) March 21, 2016
Later asked by a reporter why he offered her a job on the spot, Trump said: “She just seemed like a good person to me…I have instincts about people.”
Asked about naming former rival Ben Carson, who has endorsed Trump, his running mate, Trump called the former doctor a “fine man” and said, “we’ll be talking to Ben Carson about a lot of things.”