Donald Trump made this major Vice Presidential endorsement
Donald Trump needs a new running mate.
The biggest parlor game in Washington, D.C. right now is trying to guess who he will pick.
And now Donald Trump made this major Vice Presidential endorsement.
What Trump’s looking for in a running mate
Former President Donald Trump is expected to name a running mate shortly before the Republican National Convention that’s being held in Milwaukee this July.
Up until he names his Vice Presidential pick, it’s left for pundits and other Republicans to guess who’s up and who’s down in the selection process based on the hints Trumpworld leaks out.
Donald Trump Jr. is an important advisor to his father.
He’s positioned himself in the campaign as something of an America First gatekeeper to make sure “Swamp” aligned RINOs don’t infiltrate his father’s administration like the first term.
In an interview with POLITICO, Trump Jr. said his father would approach the running mate selection differently than in 2016.
That year, Trump Jr. explained, old-fashioned ticket balancing where Trump sought to reassure regular Republicans he was one of them proved paramount.
This go-round, Trump Jr. said, his father was looking for someone to help fight the “Swamp,” the Deep State, the media, and the Democrat Party.
“When people didn’t know Trump beyond sort of the TV personality or the business guy, you needed a little more balance. And I think that made a lot of sense with Mike Pence at the time,” Trump Jr. said in an interview with POLITICO. “Now, I think we see where our country is, you need someone who’s actually going to fight.”
Is J.D. Vance the favorite?
That led to speculation that U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) – who Trump described at a recent rally as a “fighter” – was at the top of the shortlist.
In fact, Vance was one of the three names Trump Jr. endorsed – along with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy – to be his father’s running mate.
Vance tried to downplay the speculation.
“I would be interested in doing it if he asked me, but he also hasn’t asked me,” Vance told POLITICO. “I don’t think he’s close to asking anybody. So I think it feels extremely premature.”
Other Trump advisors weigh in
Thanks to his opposition to amnesty and funding for Joe Biden’s war in Ukraine, Vance is viewed as the avatar of Trumpism in the Senate.
Former Trump White House advisor Kellyanne Conway says he can pick from the full menu of options for a running mate thanks to his lead in the polls.
“Unlike the Democrats who are stuck with a wildly unpopular President and Vice President, Trump has an embarrassment of riches in terms of who he can choose,” Conway relayed to POLITICO.
“The VP is the most important decision, but he is widely focused on personnel all around,” Conway added.
She urged him to play identity politics and pick a black or Latino running mate because polls show him making inroads with those groups.
But woke identity politics are what’s in part driving those voters away from the Democrat Party, so Trump picking a running mate based on race or gender is likely a losing play.
If he wants someone who’s a fighter and will help him govern through a commitment to his America First agenda then there would be few better picks than J.D. Vance.
