OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Donald Trump has yet to be officially nominated as the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential candidate, but that seems a foregone conclusion at this point, given his easy dispatching of all but one remaining primary contender, Nikki Haley.
As such, there has been speculation for months about who the former president would choose as his running mate/vice president, though another name has surfaced in recent days.
Trump attended a “mega MAGA” gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate billed as a “Golden Evening for a Golden President” event organized by a group called The Trumpettes.
The star-studded event featured actor Robert Davi, who improvised a version of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” in which he crooned, “Trump did it his way.” Meanwhile, Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tore into “communist Democrats” who are “coming after your money.”
However, it was Vivek Ramaswamy who turned heads; after dropping out of the presidential race last month and heartily endorsing Trump, he is rumored to be on the VP shortlist, especially after he made his entrance with Trump and former first lady Melania Trump.
Social media erupted following the event, with opinions and comments suggesting Ramaswamy definitely could make a good vice president.
“I wonder if Vivek will be vice president? I have never been so impatient in my life to know who the VP pick is. Waiting sucks,” an X user wrote.
“This is what the country needs. President and VP. This needs to happen,” another wrote.
“I think God anointed him to save this country,” event organizer Toni Holt Kramer, president of the support group Trumpettes USA, told the audience that filled Mar-a-Lago’s main ballroom on Feb. 10. “America is the love of his life. He’s got the biggest heart, the smartest mind, and the strongest way. There’s no one else like him.”
WATCH:
Other names have surfaced on the Trump VP shortlist.
House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik of New York appears to be making a strong case to become Trump’s running mate, judging by her response during a CNN interview regarding his first vice president, Mike Pence.
During the interview last week, Stefanik strongly suggested she would not have certified the 2020 election results as president of the Senate if she were Trump’s vice president at the time.
“I would not have done what Mike Pence did. I don’t think that was the right approach,” Stefanik told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “I specifically stand by what I said on the House floor.”
She refused to vote to certify the 2020 election results, arguing that there was “unconstitutional overreach” in states like Pennsylvania, where election laws were altered by state officials and courts, not the legislature, as called for in the U.S. Constitution, prior to the November elections. Officials at the time cited the COVID pandemic as their basis for allowing widespread mail-in balloting, which many Republicans said were unconstitutional changes. Federal courts, however, refused to intervene.
“I think it’s very important that we continue to stand up for the Constitution and have legal and secure elections, which we did not have in 2020,” Stefanik said.
WATCH:
Stefanik is a rising star in the party and has the full support of Trump.
After then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ordered committees to launch an official impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, Trump spoke with her last fall.
Stefanik said they had spoken shortly after McCarthy’s announcement at the Capitol about the impeachment inquiry, according to a source familiar with the conversation.
“I speak to President Trump a lot. I spoke to him today,” Stefanik told reporters, adding that she believes the Biden family’s business dealings are “the biggest political corruption scandal of our lifetime.”
