PALM BEACH, Florida — Former President Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner for president in 2024, advised Breitbart Information solely throughout a two-hour-plus interview at Mar-a-Lago final week that the one that will get the nod for vice chairman is not going to make a lot distinction within the grand scheme of issues relating to successful the election.
“In the event you research the historical past of presidential runs, a vice chairman has by no means made a distinction—which is shocking,” Trump mentioned. “It’s a one-night story, after which they’re again to an everyday night. They’re voting for the president. They’re not voting for the vice chairman. There has, not that I can consider, by no means been a vice chairman that’s made a lot of a distinction by way of nomination and by way of even successful the election.”
Whereas Trump didn’t get into particularly whom he would choose if he wins the nomination as anticipated or a timeline for an eventual choice, he did say that Republicans have a deep bench, and plenty of folks can be good decisions.
“So, look, we now have some excellent folks—the identical folks you already know,” Trump mentioned. “They’re good folks. We have now some folks that would love me to run with sure others. Perhaps I can’t do this as a result of you must go together with what your intestine tells you. Successful is essential. Look, if we don’t win this, I believe this nation is completed. I really do.”
Donor-class institution varieties are aggressively lobbying Trump to get him to select former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, a present Trump rival for the GOP nomination. Their argument is that she would assist him win ladies and average voters, however Trump doesn’t appear to be shopping for that argument as evidenced by his perception that whomever he would choose as a operating mate would make no distinction within the end result of the overall election.
US 2024 Republican presidential hopeful and former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley speaks on the New Hampshire Republican Social gathering’s First within the Nation Management Summit in Nashua, New Hampshire, on October 13, 2023 (JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP by way of Getty Pictures).
Others anticipated to be into account embrace South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Home Republican convention chairwoman Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), amongst many, many others. The truth that Trump is speaking in regards to the GOP’s deep bench and lengthy record of potential contenders for this—mixed together with his latest escalations in assaults on Haley, whom he calls “Birdbrain”—would appear to bode badly for Haley’s probabilities of being chosen.
Rep. Byron Donalds (Stefani Reynolds/Getty Pictures)
With the Iowa caucuses every week from Monday and the New Hampshire major eight days later—Trump leads each considerably in polling—he may wrap up the nomination battle within the subsequent couple of weeks. If he does, and ends it shortly, count on the dialog to maneuver to the particular person he would choose as a operating mate and why pretty quickly after. If the nomination battle drags out via February into March—Tremendous Tuesday is the primary week of March, and the next Tuesday is the primary alternative for a candidate to achieve the delegate threshold for a majority on the conference in July—it could possibly be an extended, extra drawn-out dialogue.