Because he is not actually bad, and as was noted would free up a slot on the dc court, but most importantly after the dems savage him horribly Trump can say I ok whatever and nominate someone else. When the dems object again he can say the dems would object to Jesus, or even RBG if she was still alive just cause I picked her..
Garland is atrocious, and the Dems aren’t stupid enough to get played like that — they’d confirm him. Either way, after the nakedly partisan decisions out of Pennsylvania and Michigan courts this week I don’t see Trump winning, so we don’t have time for these games just to prove a point. At the moment we have the president and the senate, and we have to use it for the potentially very brief amount of time we have left in control.