Former President Donald Trump has named his finalists for the coveted position of vice president and hinted at when he would make the announcement.
“I’d love to do it during the convention, which would be you know, or just slightly before the convention, like Monday, love to do it on Tuesday or Wednesday, actually, but for a lot of complex reasons that you people understand, pretty much don’t do that,” he said on “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show.”
One of those complex reasons is that the Republican National Committee would need to make campaign posters and signs with the vice presidential pick’s name on them to have at the convention which starts on Monday.
The shortlist includes Republican Sens. Marco Rubio, JD Vance and Tim Scott along with North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
“It’s like a highly sophisticated version of ‘The Apprentice,’ if you think about it,” the former president said.
“I have some really good candidates,” he said. “I may be leaning one way, and that changes sometimes. All of a sudden you see something that you like or you don’t like, and you lean a little bit differently.”
“The campaign has provided all the information he needs to make his decision, and we are all in agreement that it’s his decision to be made,” a Trump campaign official said to Politico, “and whenever that decision is made we are ready to go.”
Some have suggested that the former president is waiting because of the chaos in the Democratic Party and does not want to shift attention away from that.
“It increases the excitement,” former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said. “Plus, if you’re watching your opponent fall apart, why get in the way? Woodrow Wilson once said, ‘Never murder a man who is in the process of committing suicide,’ and you’re watching Biden and the Democrats drift into a civil war. Why get in the way?”
Bill White, a friend and campaign donor of the former president, said he believes that the decision has been made.
“The only person who knows at the end of the day is him, and I think the only two other people who’d know right after him, when nobody else knows, are his wife and Susie Wiles,” he said.
And there is someone else who may have a say in who is chosen, and that is former first lady Melania Trump who is said to have a favorite.
She has reportedly been speaking kindly of Doug Burgum, the governor of North Dakota, a former Trump primary opponent who has made a point of campaigning for him in several swing areas, according to Puck News.
According to sources, the reason the former first lady thinks highly of Burgum, 67, is that she is close to his wife Kathryn, who previously collaborated with Melania on a White House project. She faces opposition from Donald Trump, Jr., who is fervently advocating for Ohio Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH).
“If it’s Melania over Don Jr., she wins,” a source told the outlet before pausing to note that her credibility took a major hit after she urged Trump to endorse Mehmet Oz over David McCormick in Pennsylvania’s 2022 U.S. Senate race. “That was a major f***-up on her part. It cost her,” the former Trump aide said.
Advocates for Governor Burgum point out that his affable, understated style benefits the irascible president, adding weight to the ticket without overshadowing him.
The Republican from North Dakota is also extraordinarily wealthy; he used $20 million in personal donations to finance his own presidential campaign and has a network of wealthy conservatives in the business community who have generally been hesitant to support President Trump.
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