However, as Trump gets ready for a possible 2024 bid to regain the White House, the nascent thinking at Mar-a-Lago circling his inherent vice president is considerably different. According to discussions with a dozen Trump advisers and close associates, the former President doesn’t feel restrained by geographic or ideological considerations — or any standard political practices at all.
People close to him say his selection will be executed through two factors that rate highest in Trump’s estimation: unquestioned loyalty and an embrace of the former President’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
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“A lot of times, a presidential candidate will pick a running mate to balance out the wings of the party. But with Trump, that’s not the issue. He is the party, basically. It’s so united behind him,” said John McLaughlin, one of Trump’s campaign pollsters. “So his choice, if he runs, will come down to what he wants. It would be a much more personal decision this time.”
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Trump hasn’t made his 2024 bid official. He’s expected to decide after the 2022 midterms. But he has been building a campaign-in-waiting that is already laying the groundwork, and the question of a running mate is surfacing with increasing frequency.
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He’s name-dropped Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as one possible running mate. There are thoughts of possibilities among insiders who saw him talking recently with South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at his Mar-a-Lago club.
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“They’re all begging me. They all come here,” Trump bragged to one adviser, who shared the account anonymously with POLITICO.
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The effect of a running mate, advisers and allies say, has taken on a different dimension in Trump’s mind as he fumes over his choice to pick Pence in 2016, only to watch the Vice President help confirm the election of Joe Biden as President in January. Though it was Pence’s legal liability, Trump viewed him as treacherous and recently went so far as to say it was “common sense” that the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters chorused “hang Mike Pence.”
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Trump's advisers say that the events that led Trump to name Pence as his ticket mate in 2016, an evangelical conservative, are no longer as important. They say Trump is far more likely to go with his gut sense next time around. During the selection process last time, Trump relied on his daughter and son-in-law Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, but the two are not expected to have the same role if he runs in 2024.
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