It's looking more and more like former and potentially future President Donald Trump is going to be the Republican nominee, and we're now just days away from the Iowa Republican Caucus, where we might get the sense of how the race is going to go. Trump certainly thinks he's going to be the nominee, though that's not very surprising given his sense of confidence and the polls to back that up. He hasn't participated in any of the primary debates, in part because polling puts him so far ahead of the rest. Trump has, however, participated in town halls, as he did on Wednesday for Fox News, the same time as CNN was doing their debate between former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. It was during that event that Trump shared a few thoughts about his running mate.
When co-host Martha MacCallum asked Trump who his running mate will be, he responded that "I can't tell you that really," though he did also say "I mean, I know who it's going to be." While he wasn't budging, Trump offered "we'll do another show sometime," and joked around a bit about former New Jersey Chris Christie, who had actually just dropped out on Wednesday, while continuing his anti-Trump crusade.
ABC News tried to report on Trump's remarks and the reaction from his campaign as there being some kind of miscommunication. But, as we know, Trump says what he wants and does what he wants. "Trump says he's already picked his VP and 'can't tell you,' but his campaign backtracks," read the headline.
In addition to mentioning that moment above from the town hall, the report cited comments from campaign staff:
Those comments seemingly caught his top aides off guard.
"All I know is what I heard tonight, and I'm not gonna categorize it any other way than that," senior campaign adviser Chris LaCivita told reporters following the town hall.
Pressed on what types of conversations have happened around a potential vice presidential candidate pick, LaCivita said the talks have been minimal.
"I'm sure that when the time to discuss a VP ... comes, everybody will know," he added.
The report mentioned names like South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik of New York, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who dropped out of the race in November. Some of these could be a possibility, though I'm really not seeing Greene as his running mate here. There are other ways to reward loyalty and support.
There are other names too, though. People have gotten rather opinionated on posts from Tom Dees pointing to former Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York, who came close to beating Gov. Kathy Hochul in November 2022; Dr. Ben Carson, who also ran for president 2016 and served as his Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin. For the longest time, there had been chatter that Youngkin himself might be running as a late entry dark horse candidate, though that finally died down.
SCOOP: Congressman Lee Zeldin has received formal media training amid being vetted to serve as Trump’s Vice President.
— Tom Dees (@thomaswdees) January 9, 2024
SCOOP: @realDonaldTrump has narrowed his VP selection down to three candidates and claims to have already made his decision:
— Tom Dees (@thomaswdees) January 11, 2024
1. @RealBenCarson
2. @leezeldin
3. @GlennYoungkin
Some are hopeful that Trump could pick Tucker Carlson, which an Axios column from last month mentioned. In fact, Carlson's name was just one listed when it comes to "How Trump would build his loyalty-first Cabinet." Melania Trump was reportedly supportive of her husband choosing Tucker.
But there's still more options. During that town hall, Trump and MacCallum also discussed his primary rivals, which is where the Christie joke came in. "What about any of the people who you've run against?" MaCallum asked. "Would you be open to mending fences with any of them?" There's been chatter about Haley being Trump's running mate, but articles and columns have addressed skepticism to that, and the more recent chatter is about Haley and DeSantis teaming up. Donald Trump Jr. also isn't a fan of Haley. One possible name not talked enough about is Vivek Ramaswamy, especially with how supportive of the former president he's been, while maintaining there needs to be a president of the next generation, which the 38-year-old Ramaswamy certainly is.
"Oh, sure. I will, I will," Trump had added, as he and MacCallum then joked about Christie.
Of course, it could end up being none of these names. It could all just end up being idle chatter, though there's certainly an interest in speculation.
Trump could go with a running mate seemingly out of left field, as Republican nominee John McCain did in 2008 when choosing Sarah Palin, then the governor of Alaska. Candidates have even picked their running mates without being the nominee, as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) did when he was running against Trump in 2016 and chose Carly Fiorina, who had once been in the field as well.
We will indeed find out more information as the time comes, hopefully not much longer.