How will Donald Trump pick his new Supreme Court nominee? It’s Donald Trump, so the answer is obviously personal chemistry (no doubt with a heavy dose of how loyal he thinks they’ll be) plus optics. Trump is starting out with a pre-approved list of far-right judges and legal thinkers courtesy of the Federalist Society, so from there he can go with his gut, knowing that the right-wing legal and political establishments will nod along approvingly.
Most important? “Who he feels most comfortable with in a personal setting.” So we’re guaranteed a Supreme Court nominee adept at kissing up as well as kicking down (kicking down being a requirement of that original FedSoc list).
But there is at least one other consideration:
“Beyond the qualifications, what really matters is, does this nominee fit a central casting image for a Supreme Court nominee, as well as his or her spouse,” the Republican close to the White House said. “That's a big deal. Do they fit the role?”
In other words, if a candidate looked like Donald Trump and had the public affection and chemistry with his or her spouse of Donald and Melania … it would be held against him or her. Though that might be a surmountable obstacle if the candidate went into a one-on-one interview with Trump and sucked up hard enough, with enough pronouncements that a president should never ever be investigated for anything.