The time nears for former President Donald Trump — the presumptive GOP nominee in this fall’s presidential race — to select a running mate, and potential picks appeared at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Saturday to bid for the job.
Axios got to be kind of a fly on the wall in the auditions, reporting Sunday it had obtained an audio recording of Trump speaking at a private luncheon about some of the vice presidential candidates.
A summation of Trump’s opinions of the contenders, as reported, might be expressed the way the former president himself would put it: “Great people. The best. Great people. Nobody could find such great people to be vice president. Yeah, maybe a few improvements to make, but any of them would be great.
“Great people.”
OK. While Trump’s assessments might have lacked real substance (of Utah Sen. Mike Lee: “I love your haircut!”), Axios quoted his thoughts on 11 potential running mates.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem passed one of Trump’s top tests — loyalty.
“Somebody that I love,” he said of her, according to Axios. “She’s been with me, a supporter of mine and I’ve been a supporter of her for a long time.”
And it’s no secret Noem has been campaigning for the job.
Another candidate — Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio — was wobbly on the loyalty issue, Trump said. But, according to Axios, there could be a mending of that breach.
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“He wasn’t a supporter of mine at the very beginning … He was saying things like ‘the guy’s a total disaster’ … Anyways, I got to know him a little bit … As a non-politician, he’s becoming one of the great senators,” the former president said.
Positive but noncommittal regarding Vance. Remember, Trump — author of “The Art of the Deal” — can be cagey.
Then there was Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. “His name is coming up a lot for vice president,” Axios quoted Trump as saying.
But the old problem arises of one’s former opponent in a primary becoming an ally in a general election.
The former president’s deft ability to identify and label perceived weaknesses of opponents is legendary but creates a problem if he wants to campaign with someone he used to call “Little Marco” during the 2016 campaign.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who ran for nearly six months in the current presidential race, dropped out and campaigned hard for Trump.
That got him high Taccolades: “As a candidate he did a good job, but as a surrogate he’s unbelievable,” the former president said.
Besides praising Lee’s haircut, Trump described him as “a good man, too,” Axios reported.
He lauded the campaign ability of Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn, elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018, saying she was “like the Energizer bunny.”
Other possible vice presidential picks included Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida, a military expert (“When I want to know about the military, I call him,” Trump said), Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas, described as a friend (“makes the best commercials … beautiful family”), Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York (“a very smart person”) and Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida (“I like diversity — diversité, as you would say”).
Regarding the final candidate listed, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump said, “I didn’t know this: He was a supporter of my two campaigns. He’s a very rich man.”
Again, the positives of loyalty. And there’s the pragmatic aspect of something that has aided him, especially in the past — a certain independence created by one’s wealth, not to mention personal contributions that could be made to a Trump-Burgum ticket.
Donalds also is wealthy and has joined the former president in questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election of Joe Biden in 2020.
So whom should Trump pick?
Democrats, of course, tend toward tickets that provide a mixture of race and gender, as evidenced by its recent pairings: Barack Obama and Biden in 2008 and 2012, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine in 2016, and Biden and Kamala Harris four years later.
Will that matter for Republicans? For that matter, does it appeal to the electorate in general?
So far, Trump hasn’t named his choice or even said if he has one, but based on the comments in the Axios report, the people to watch might be Scott and Noem.
And Trump being Trump, who knows?
For a vice presidential choice, a surprise may be in the offing.
