Justice Samuel Alito has no plans to retire from the Supreme Court anytime soon, a source close to the justice told the Wall Street Journal, halting a flurry of speculation among some Republican leaders that Alito, 74, could vacate the bench to make room for a younger, more conservative jurist.

Rumors about Alito’s retirement began swirling almost immediately after Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, which also saw Republicans set to take back control of the Senate and retain control of the House in January.

With no filibuster allowed on Supreme Court appointments, the GOP majority would allow Trump to face little if any resistance in confirming his picks for high court justices, should the court’s two oldest conservative justices, Alito and Clarence Thomas, retire.

Alito, for his part, has made clear he has no plans to do so. 

‘Despite what some people may think, this is a man who has never thought about this job from a political perspective,’ a person close to Alito told the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news of his intention to remain on the bench. 

‘The idea that he’s going to retire for political considerations is not consistent with who he is,’ this person added.

Alito was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2006 by President George W. Bush. 

At 74, Alito is the second-oldest justice on the bench behind Justice Clarence Thomas, 76, who was appointed to the court by President George H.W. Bush in 1991. Sonia Sotomayor, appointed by President Obama in 2009, is 70.

But pressure for Alito and Thomas to step aside to make way for younger, Trump-picked candidates could prove to be deeply polarizing at a time when public approval of the Supreme Court is in the mid 40s, according to a Gallup survey in September.

Conservatives currently hold a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court. Trump named three justices to the Supreme Court during his first term, preserving its conservative majority. President Biden, for his part, most recently named Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the court in 2022 after the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer.

If Alito and Thomas were to retire from the bench, Trump could become the first president since Eisenhower, also a Republican, to name a majority of the justices of the Supreme Court.

Despite his own isolationist musings, the first picks of President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration hail from a decidedly more traditionalist wing of the Republican Party.

On Tuesday, Trump formally announced that Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., would be his national security adviser. Sources have said Trump is set on tapping Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for secretary of state.

Together with New York Rep. Elise Stefanik — set for the role of ambassador to the United Nations — the trio is expected to further a staunchly pro-Israel agenda.

Ukrainian advocates are also somewhat relieved. 

‘Kyiv looks at these appointments with some quiet relief — they clearly know there’s room for engagement,’ one source familiar with Ukrainian operations told Fox News Digital. They added that after a Biden administration that they believe has been overly fearful of escalating U.S. involvement in the war with Russia, ‘a not insignificant number of senior Ukrainian officials are cautiously optimistic about what a change of pace might look like. 

Waltz, who once served as a counterterrorism adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney, is widely regarded as a hawk on China and Iran. He was vociferously opposed to President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

‘What no one can ever do for me, including this administration right now, is articulate a counterterrorism plan that’s realistic without us there,’ Waltz said in an interview days after the withdrawal. 

The former Army Green Beret officer and ex-CEO of a defense contracting company introduced legislation during the first Trump administration that would have prevented a mass troop drawdown in Afghanistan unless the director of national intelligence certified that the Taliban would not associate with al-Qaeda. 

‘I think we’re in for a long haul and I think our nation’s leadership needs to begin telling the American people, ‘I’m sorry. We don’t have a choice. We’re 15 years into what is going to be a multi-generational war because we’re talking about defeating an idea,” Waltz said about Afghanistan at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2017.

Waltz voted for keeping the Iraq War Authorization on the books in 2021 and voted against ending U.S. support for the Saudi war in Yemen. 

In an interview with NPR last week, Waltz said the war between Russia and Ukraine can end if the U.S. applies some leverage. 

Russia’s ‘war machine will dry up very quickly’ with U.S. economic sanctions, Waltz said, as well as ‘taking the handcuffs off of the long-range weapons we provided Ukraine.’ Biden has long refused to allow Ukraine to use U.S. weapons to strike deep inside Russia. 

Last month, when Israel conducted a counterstrike on Iran’s military targets, Waltz bemoaned that it hadn’t gone after Iran’s oil and nuclear facilities. ‘Did Biden/Harris pressure Israel once again to do less than it should?’ he questioned. 

Rubio, meanwhile, is a noted hawk on China, Iran and Venezuela, where he has been working to unseat dictator Nicolas Maduro. 

Rubio, at one time, supported U.S. aid to Ukraine, but when the matter came up again earlier this year, he was one of 15 Republicans to vote against a supplemental funding package, citing insufficient border provisions. 

He’s been a strong proponent of U.S. support for Taiwan. When Trump raised concerns about the U.S.’s support for Taiwan and suggested the island should pay the U.S. for its defense, Rubio predicted Trump would ‘continue to support Taiwan’ if he reclaimed the White House.

Like Trump, both Waltz and Rubio have been critical of NATO allies for not spending enough on defense. Rubio has insisted Europe should ‘take the lead’ on its defense: ‘Germany, France, and the United Kingdom are more than capable of managing their relationship with the nuclear-armed belligerent to their east. But they’ll never take ownership so long as they can rely on America.’

Rubio cosponsored legislation last year that would bar any president from pulling the U.S. from NATO without congressional approval, a measure that was seen as a precaution if Trump were to win the presidency and follow through with his frequent threats to abandon the alliance.

His pick triggered some backlash from some Trump die-hards who view him as too hawkish. 

‘Apparently there hasn’t been a SOS pick yet FYSA [for your situational awareness],’ posted Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) late Monday on X, after news outlets began reporting Trump had settled on Rubio. 

Libertarian-minded comedian Dave Smith said Tuesday that Rubio is ‘a disaster.’

‘Might as well give Liz Cheney the State Department,’ Smith wrote. ‘Awful sign.’

Stephen Wertheim, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that Waltz and Rubio signal ‘above all, a hard line toward China not only on economics but across the board — on political, military, and ideological competition.’ 

‘The picks leave me wondering whether Trump will deliver on his sometimes restrained foreign policy promises, including his stated desire to end the war in Ukraine sooner rather than later and to see Israel wrap up its wars,’ he said. ‘I’m getting flashbacks to the first Trump administration.’

But, he added, ‘Rubio is no longer quite the Rubio many remember from 2016.’ 

‘Rubio seems to understand that the United States faces resource constraints and needs to set strategic priorities in an increasingly competitive world.’

And some restraint-minded thinkers hold out cautious optimism. 

‘If [Rubio] channels Trump’s approach rather than pursuing his own agenda, he could redefine the state department’s role in a way that is both respected and effective abroad. Rubio knows that his future prospects are tied to his ability to execute Trump’s policy, not personal ambitions,’ said Jason Beardsley, senior coalitions adviser for Concerned Veterans for America. 

‘Having worked closely with Waltz, I can vouch for his deep understanding of America’s strategic priorities. He’s passionate about reforming the DoD from within and ensuring national security without overextending our military in costly, unnecessary engagements.’

President-elect Trump announced that billionaire Elon Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the Department of Government Efficiency.

Trump said that the pair will work together to ‘dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.’

‘It will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project’ of our time,’ the announcement on Tuesday evening said. ‘Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of ‘DOGE’ for a very long time.’

The president-elect said that Musk and Ramaswamy will provide ‘advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.’

Trump said that the agency will be focused on creating a more efficient U.S. government that looks to make ‘life better for all Americans.’

‘Importantly, we will drive out the massive waste and fraud which exists throughout our annual $6.5 Trillion Dollars of Government Spending. They will work together to liberate our Economy, and make the U.S. Government accountable to ‘WE THE PEOPLE.” Trump said. 

‘Their work will conclude no later than July 4, 2026 – A smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence. I am confident they will succeed!’

In a X post, Ramaswamy reacted to his appointment.

‘We will not go gently, Elon Musk,’ he wrote in the post.

Ramaswamy has been a vocal supporter of Trump after he suspended his presidential campaign in Jan. 24.

Similarly, Musk has been a key component to Trump’s campaign – with the tech entrepreneur crisscrossing key battleground states leading up to the 2024 election.

In response to his position in Trump’s White House, Musk wrote: ‘Threat to democracy? Nope, threat to BUREAUCRACY!!!’

The world’s richest man, who said he voted for former Democratic presidential candidates including President Biden in the past, endorsed Trump this summer following the first assassination attempt on the 45th president on July 13. 

The slew of Trump Cabinet positions came quickly after the president-elect’s landslide victory against Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump has selected top Republicans, with the president-elect expected to select Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to serve as his Secretary of State and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as secretary of Homeland Security. 

In addition, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., has been tapped for United Nations ambassador and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel.