As speculation mounts over who Trump may choose to run with if he wins the GOP nomination in 2024, the former president’s team shared some interesting insight into his potential running mate.
According to the Daily Caller, Trump will likely pick a vice presidential candidate who is “loyal,” “charismatic,” and “ideologically aligned” with him.
“No candidates have publicly announced their intent to be Trump’s VP, but the former president has indicated that ‘a lot of people’ are ‘auditioning’ behind the scenes. Trump insiders told the Caller that although there haven’t been any formal discussions to narrow down the pool, there are a set of characteristics that will likely be considered,” the Daily Caller reported.
“We do know one thing about Trump, is that he puts a lot of weight on how well you present yourself. That really matters to him, so I suspect that will matter for his VP choice,” a GOP consultant close to Trump told the Caller, adding that the person needs to be “TV ready.”
“Loyalty. That’s the necessary characteristic of anyone who wants to be VP. President Trump and the movement was dragged down by disloyalty in the White House,” a source close to Trump said.
Trump on potential vice presidents: "A lot of people are right now auditioning" https://t.co/Gs9uxhR5dk pic.twitter.com/N4EvSVlZ7W
— The Hill (@thehill) March 16, 2023
In the interview, the insiders did not name any specific individuals but offered some insight as to the type of person he would be interested in.
During a recent Politico report, an unnamed Trump adviser said the 45th president may pick a running mate “from three general lanes of candidates: women, conservatives of color, or a trusted adviser.”
“Once you get past those two issues — loyalty and Trump going more with his gut — Trump has a lot of leeway in who he would pick,” said Tony Fabrizio, Trump’s lead pollster in 2016 and 2020.
“He’s not necessarily looking to balance the ticket geographically, but what he can do is pick to balance gender, race, ethnicity — a lot of different lanes there. It could be everything from a Tim Scott in South Carolina to an Asian American in California or somebody Hispanic in Texas. There are so many choices and paths. And there’s lots of time to go,” he added.
In a Washington Examiner report, Trump may have his eye on four Republican women: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and former Arizona journalist Kari Lake.
Sanders, the youngest governor in the United States and the longest-tenured press secretary in the Trump White House, flew up political draft boards after she delivered what Trump supporters agree was an “exceptionally strong” response to Biden’s State of the Union on Feb. 7.
Noem was elected as South Dakota’s first female governor in 2018 after spending more than a decade in the House of Representatives and has made a name for herself as a leading Republican lawmaker in the so-called “culture wars.”
Stefanik, the current chairwoman of the House GOP conference, was elected as a centrist Republican in 2015 but, after serving on the president’s defense team during his first impeachment, has shifted increasingly to the right. She frequently touts her strong ties to Trump and even endorsed his 2024 run days before he announced his candidacy.
Lake is perhaps the strangest potential pick and one many current and former Trump advisers hope he avoids. The former Phoenix-area news anchor lost her Trump-endorsed 2022 gubernatorial bid against Democrat Katie Hobbs, but she only further endeared herself to the former president by repeatedly claiming that widespread fraud occurred in the 2020 election.
