Rumors have been swirling that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito might announce he is retiring at the end of this term, and while some wonder if the rumors are part of a “pressure campaign,” there are valid reasons why an Alito retirement — or one by Justice Clarence Thomas — would be beneficial to President Donald Trump.

According to CNN analysis, even though Alito, 76, and Thomas, 77, are staunch conservatives, they are near the average retirement age for Supreme Court justices. There are signs Democrats might take control of the Senate after the November midterm elections. Even if Republicans keep control, the GOP’s margin might shrink, making a confirmation battle difficult for any Trump nominee.

CNN notes that “even if Senate Democrats come up short in November, there could be a big difference between Trump nominating a justice with 53 Republican votes this year and trying to do so with 50 or 51 in the second half of his term.”

“But the president may have other reasons, apart from the confirmability factor, to try and usher things in this direction,” CNN notes.

For instance, a confirmation fight could be an election issue that Republicans could use to drive a “significantly less enthusiastic” GOP base to the polls.

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“There is some thought,” CNN notes, “that Democrats’ attempts to defeat Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh in the runup to the 2018 election helped the GOP win some vulnerable red-state Senate races in what was otherwise a tough election for the party.”

There are other reasons.

“Given Trump’s recent disenchantment with two of his appointees who ruled against him on the tariffs case — Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch — he would likely prefer to have some cushion to choose someone he might view as more loyal,” CNN notes.

But Trump’s legacy might be the more motivating factor for the almost 80-year-old president.

“Trump in his comments to Fox Business spoke about appointing someone who could serve for 40 years,” CNN reports. “If he replaced even one of Alito or Thomas with someone in their 40s, for example, the average age of the conservative justices would be less than 60. If he replaced both with justices in their 40s, that average age would drop into the mid-50s.”

With four or five appointments over two terms to the nation’s highest court, Trump could be among the few presidents in modern history to so fully shape the Supreme Court in their image.

“In theory, it’s two or three, they tell me,” Trump said of the number of possible nominations he might still be able to make.

“If you just read statistics, it could be two, could be three, could be one. I don’t know,” Trump told Fox Business, adding: “I’m prepared to do it.”

READ MORE: ‘Woe to Those Who Manipulate Religion’: Is the Pope Targeting Trump?

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President Donald Trump’s attack on Pope Leo XIV — while depicting himself as Jesus, and later, as embraced by Jesus — is being met with scorn and derision by some, and even disapproval by some of his most ardent Christian right supporters.

“Donald Trump is no stranger to picking fights,” a Financial Times newsletter stated on Thursday. “But his most recent one — with the pope, of all people — could prove his most consequential misstep.”

For his part, the Pope appears unperturbed, and continues to go about his business of preaching the gospel. But he has not deviated, and, some might argue, is publicly using the Bible to protest Trump’s war in Iran while calling for peace.

Trump had “issued a flurry of statements Sunday against Pope Leo XIV, saying in part that the U.S.-born pope supports Iran having a nuclear weapon,” PolitiFact reported, noting that the Pope has repeatedly denounced nuclear weapons — and war itself.

“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the president wrote in a lengthy broadside. “And I don’t want a Pope who criticizes the President of the United States because I’m doing exactly what I was elected, IN A LANDSLIDE, to do, setting Record Low Numbers in Crime, and creating the Greatest Stock Market in History.”

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Pope Leo has continued to promote his pro-peace, anti-war argument.

“Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth,” he wrote on social media Thursday morning.

The Guardian reported that the Pope “did not mention Donald Trump by name, but used his speech in Cameroon on Thursday to denounce world leaders that invoke religion to justify violence against other nations.”

On Wednesday, Leo wrote: “#Peace is everyone’s responsibility, beginning with civil authorities. To govern means to love one’s own country as well as neighboring countries. The commandment ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ is equally applicable to international relations!”

Also on Wednesday, the Pope wrote, “Let us reject the logic of violence and war, and embrace peace founded on love and justice—an unarmed peace, not based on fear, threats or weapons…The world thirsts for #Peace! Enough of war and all the pain it causes through death, destruction, and exile!”

“God’s heart is torn apart by wars, violence, injustice and lies,” he wrote on Tuesday.

BREAKING: Pope Leo XVI says the world is being ‘ravaged by a handful of tyrants’ during a visit to Cameroon.

The remarks come amid his feud with U.S. President Donald Trump over the war in Iran.https://t.co/1wxbrJ2Hxo

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Amid President Donald Trump’s escalating feud with Pope Leo XIV, the Trump administration has canceled an $11 million contract with Catholic Charities in Miami, Florida, to shelter and care for migrant children who enter the U.S. unaccompanied, a relationship that dates back to the 1960s, the Miami Herald reports.

“The U.S. government has abruptly decided to end more than 60 years of relationship with Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Miami,” Archbishop Thomas Wenski wrote, according to the Miami Herald. “The Archdiocese of Miami’s services for unaccompanied minors have been recognized for their excellence and have served as a model for other agencies throughout the country.”

Catholic Charities was contracted to operate a full-service child welfare program in the Miami-Dade area.

“Our track record in serving this vulnerable population is unmatched. Yet, the Archdiocese of Miami’s Catholic Charities’ services for unaccompanied minors has been stripped of funding and will be forced to shut down within three months,” Archbishop Wenski noted.

The Trump administration is citing a reduction in unaccompanied minors crossing the border, which the archdiocese acknowledges. But that population still exists, and it is unknown how many children will be uprooted and relocated, or where they will go.

The Department of Health and Human Services described the daily population of unaccompanied migrant children in the agency’s care as “significantly lower,” than it had been under the Biden administration.

Health and Human Services’ press secretary Emily G. Hillard suggested that the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s closure of unused facilities “continues efforts to stop illegal entry and the smuggling and trafficking of unaccompanied alien children.”

But Wenski called it “baffling that the U.S. government would shut down a program that it would be hard-pressed to replicate at the level of competence” shown by the church.

Describing being moved as “incredibly psychologically harmful” to the children, Robert Latham, associate director of the University of Miami Law School’s Children and Youth Law Clinic, “said any relocation to a new foster home or shelter likely would be traumatic for children who already have suffered uncertainty and loss.”

“For little kids, moving repeatedly creates bonding issues and destroys the sense of both self and community. They don’t know who they are and where they will be” from day to day, he said.

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Last week, President Donald Trump took issue with the Pope’s call for peace.

“God does not bless any conflict,” Pope Leo wrote on social media. “Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs. Military action will not create space for freedom or times of #Peace, which comes only from the patient promotion of coexistence and dialogue among peoples.”

The Guardian called it a “rebuke” over the Iran war, and noted that while the Pope did not name names, his post criticized attempts to use religion to glorify the U.S. war in the Middle East.

Trump responded to the Pope’s remarks, saying that he had “nothing to apologize for,” and stated that the Pope was “wrong.”

The pope has continued his opposition to the Iran war.

On Tuesday, he wrote, “God’s heart is torn apart by wars, violence, injustice and lies. But our Father’s heart is not with the wicked, the arrogant, or the proud. God’s heart is with the little ones and the humble, and with them He builds up His Kingdom of love and peace day by day. Wherever there is love and service, God is there.”

Just days ago, Trump told reporters, “We don’t like a pope that’s gonna say that it’s okay to have a nuclear weapon. We don’t want a pope that says, crime is okay in our cities. I don’t like it. I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person, and he’s a man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime. He’s a man that doesn’t think that we should be toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon so they can blow up the world.”

Trump also recently described the Pope as “Weak on Nuclear Weapons.”

READ MORE: ‘I Wasn’t That Involved’: Weakened Trump Tries to Rewrite History

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