Trump ratchets up suspense with looming VP pick

Former President Trump is wringing every last ounce of suspense out of his running mate announcement.

The former president has in recent days been adamant about his desire to announce his pick during the Republican National Convention (RNC), describing it as “the old-fashioned way.” But sources indicated the announcement is likely to come before the convention officially begins on Monday.

“I’d love to do it during the convention, which would be, you know, or just slightly before the convention, like Monday,” Trump said on “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show” on Friday. “I’d 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.”

Convention rules are such that Trump would have to name his running mate by Monday to allow the party to formally nominate the ticket during a roll call vote. Trump campaign officials on Thursday pushed back against reports that the convention’s rules were tweaked to allow for Trump to name his running mate later in the week.

“The removal of the 1 hour requirement was adopted to permit the roll call and run of show to proceed in an expedited and orderly manner. Nothing more, nothing less,” RNC lead rules counsel William McGinley posed on X.

The search has narrowed in on Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), though Trump has in recent interviews mentioned Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) as a contender.

Vance and Rubio are thought to have separated themselves from the pack, and Vance in particular has multiple high-profile boosters in the former president’s orbit, including Donald Trump Jr.

Trump has played coy about who he might select, at times suggesting his mind is more or less made up and at others indicating he goes back and forth about the pick. A campaign spokesperson said only Trump knows who he will choose, and sources close to the former president were similarly unsure about who the final pick might be.

“The good news is, it will all be over soon,” one Trump ally said.

Trump on Friday praised Scott, Vance and Rubio for their recent television appearances and hailed Burgum as a “fantastic governor.”

“I have some really, really good candidates. And you know, I may be leaning one way and that changes sometimes,” Trump said Friday. “You know, all of a sudden you see something that you like or you don’t like and you lean a little bit differently.

“It’s like a highly sophisticated version of The Apprentice if you think about it,” he added. 

There has been some speculation that Trump could announce his pick on Saturday night at a rally in Butler, Pa. The rally is happening less than 50 miles from Ohio, making it a natural place for Trump to potentially introduce Vance as his running mate.

Chatter that the first-term Ohio senator will be the pick has ramped up in recent days in light of the Pennsylvania rally and after it was announced that Donald Trump Jr., who has advocated for Vance as his father’s running mate, will speak at the convention ahead of the vice presidential nominee.

Vance’s allies praise him as the most articulate voice in Congress in laying out Trump’s America First agenda, and he has shown a willingness to do combative television interviews to defend the former president. He is close with Donald Trump Jr. and Tucker Carlson, among others in Trump’s orbit, and his Rust Belt upbringing could help him win over working class voters in key battlegrounds.

The senator could be vulnerable to Democratic attacks, however, particularly over his intense criticism of Trump during the 2016 campaign, when Vance called Trump “noxious” and an “idiot.” Vance’s experience could also be an issue having served less than two years in the Senate.

Rubio’s allies have argued the senator could help expand Trump’s appeal to minority voters, which could chip away at President Biden’s coalition and potentially flip swing states in Trump’s favor. The senator is a more establishment figure, too, and could help win over voters who backed Nikki Haley during the GOP primary.

Rubio and Trump were bitter rivals in the 2016 presidential race, though, trading personal insults throughout the campaign. The senator would also need to move outside of Florida in order to join the ticket because of constitutional restrictions on candidates hailing from the same state.

Burgum, who only burst onto the national scene in the past year with his own 2024 bid, has quickly built a strong relationship with Trump. The Wall Street Journal pegged Burgum as the “best man” for the job, citing his ability to govern and his business background.

But his critics have questioned whether the red-state governor would do much to expand Trump’s appeal, and Trump himself suggested in recent weeks that Burgum signing a restrictive abortion ban could be an issue.

“Ultimately it’s more of an instinct. You know, you develop an instinct,” Trump said Friday. “But I like to know all the facts before the instinct kicks in.”