Even if Trump loses the Nov. 3 election, he will still have the full powers of the President until inauguration day on January 20th. My suspicion is that Trump will wait until after the election to nominate a Supreme Court pick for the following reasons:
- Holding out the prospect of another Supreme Court pick will boost turnout for the base who might otherwise be put off by his personality deficits. Historically, the Republican party has cared more about Supreme Court Nomination picks than the Democrat constituents.
- Keeping the seat open during the campaign will dominate the media coverage and diminish the available airtime to talk about personality deficits and poor choices made during the Pandemic.
- Rushing through a Supreme Court pick in the next month will look morbid and disrespectful when we haven't even had time for a funeral yet.
- There simply isn't enough time for a nomination process which on average takes 50 days and that's when there isn't anything else going on. A nomination process during the election would be extremely distracting from the campaigning process.
My question: If Trump loses the election, is there any political reason for him from to avoid appointing a justice during the lame duck period before inauguration day? The only thing I could think of would be that it would so enrage the democrats that they would feel justified in Court Packing.