With Donald Trump all but certain to be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, concerns are growing among Republican Party insiders over who he will select to be his running mate.
During a recent Fox News town hall, the former president claimed he had already made his pick but would not be making an announcement until a later date.
As Politico is reporting, that has both the GOP leadership and Trump loyalists concerned that he could select someone who does more harm to the ticket than good.
At the top of the list of potential running mates who could turn off Trump voters is former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) who is keeping her campaign alive despite a poor showing in Iowa and who has been circumspect when talking about the ex-president.
In an interview, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) claimed a Haley selection would not only be a disaster, but if the two won in November, she would undermine the newly-re-elected Trump.
“Nikki Haley as VP would be an establishment neocon fantasy and a MAGA nightmare,” he stated. “On Day One, she would convert the Naval Observatory into an anti-Trump, resistance headquarters, undermining him at every step.”
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"Trump has been told, by his son Don and others, that picking Haley would ensure a significant backlash from his populist base. Yet that hasn’t stopped the former president, as he is wont to do, from quizzing people about her to test their reactions," Politico's Jonathan Martin reported.
"And some in Trump’s organization believe, like Graham, that if Trump was convinced Haley could ensure victory he’d put aside his reservations and ignore the pleas against her."
According to Graham, "I think he would pick her if he thought it would help him win. But the longer it goes and the more scar tissue accumulates, the less likely it is.”
The report goes on to note, "One consideration Trump will make, I’m told, is a vice-presidential pick in the mold of Dick Cheney, somebody who has no ambition to run in their own right (and, unlike Cheney, may not come from the political arena at all). That, of course, would take Haley out of the running. But it would also sideline a host of other contenders, both traditional Republicans and MAGA-aligned."
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