'I'm not a No. 2 guy': DeSantis thinks there's a chance Trump would ask him to be VP

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has ruled out serving as former President Donald Trump's running mate in the 2024 election during an interview on the "Wisconsin Right Now" radio show, reported NBC News on Tuesday.

“I don’t think so, I’m not a number two guy,” DeSantis explained. He added that he would prefer remaining a governor if he didn't receive the GOP nomination because the vice presidency “doesn’t really have any authority.”

He was responding hypothetically as there is virtually no chance Trump and DeSantis would team up. Trump attack him almost daily, calling him Ron DeSanctimonious, a loser and saying he has no personality.

Vice presidents serve a ceremonial role as the President of the Senate — which served as a flashpoint for Trump supporters when former Vice President Mike Pence determined he had no legal authority to follow through with a plan from Trump allies to throw out electoral votes in 2020. They are also first in the presidential line of succession, and are often tasked with the president in various diplomatic and advisory roles; however, they hold little inherent power on their own.

When asked who DeSantis' own running mate would be, he dismissed the question as "presumptuous" and said "I’m here to win the early primaries and that’s what we’ve got to do first."

Presidential candidates generally wait until after being nominated to select their running mate; a rare exception was Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who chose former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina as his running mate during the 2016 primary season — which proved to be inconsequential as he lost the nomination to Trump.

DeSantis is the main rival to Trump in the primary, where polls consistently show him as a decisive second ahead of all the other Trump alternatives — but roughly 30 points behind Trump himself.