Donald Trump Is Considering A VP Candidate No One Could Have Predicted
Donald Trump has not yet officially released his pick for vice-presidential candidate. He technically still doesn't yet have the Republican nomination, as former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley is still running against him. Trump may be holding out on announcing his VP pick for 2024 for a number of reasons, but it turns out that he might be considering some people who, at the beginning of the year, were competing against him.
At a town hall event hosted by Laura Ingraham in Greenville, South Carolina ahead of the state's primary on February 24, Trump said he had several people on his VP shortlist, including Florida governor Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Trump had publicly denounced both men while they were also running to be the Republican candidate for president, so for them to be on his VP shortlist now after the back and forths they've had is a surprise for some.
One of Trump's former competitors may now be his running mate
Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis have notably had a number of ups and downs in their relationship over the years, with Trump referring to DeSantis with some not-so-nice nicknames, including DeSanctimonious. Since DeSantis dropped out of the race for the Republican candidate for president in January 2024, Trump has said that he'll stop calling him DeSanctimonious. It wouldn't be a very dignified nickname for a vice-president, that's for sure!
While Trump didn't have the same pithy nicknames for Vivek Ramaswamy when the young biotech entrepreneur was running against him, Trump had publicly called him out on the campaign trail, and in January 2024, one Trump adviser specifically told the New York Post that Ramaswamy wasn't likely to be Trump's VP pick. But that was the day before Ramaswamy dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump, which Trump clearly noticed and appreciated since Ramaswamy is now on the list.
Trump is also considering South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard, Florida Representative Byron Donalds, and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. Time will tell if any of those get chosen, or if Trump decides to go for someone entirely different. With Trump, you just never know!