The Donald Trump vice presidential reality selection show is heating up, with pundits laying out lists of possible people Trump might choose. They range from South Carolina GOP Sen. Tim Scott, to Ohio Sen. JD Vance, to even former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
This may seem premature since Trump has only locked up 32 of the 1,215 GOP delegates needed to secure the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. But with great confidence I can share how Trump will decide his pick if he does win the nomination.
Trump won’t select a running mate who will help expand his voting base, as he did in 2016 when he named then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who had broad support from conservative evangelicals and experience in foreign affairs as the vice chair of a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee. Nor will Trump — who turns 78 in June and whose increasing verbal errors have raised red flags about his mental fitness — make it a priority to pick a vice president who is ready to step in for him as commander in chief if need be.
The one and only metric Trump can be sure to employ is who will be the most loyal to him. It’s that simple. And that’s especially true after Pence chose loyalty to the US Constitution above Trump himself on January 6, 2021, when Trump wanted Pence to block Congress’ certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
As a reminder, in response to Trump pressuring him to thwart the transfer of power when presiding over the January 6 joint session of Congress, Pence posted on social media hours before: “It is my considered judgement that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not.”
