The Donald Trump veepstakes are finally coming to a close, with the former president telling Fox News on Monday morning that he plans to announce who’s joining him on the presidential ticket “later today.”
The announcement will come on the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, just two days after Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Speculation on who will be Trump’s pick has swirled for months, with the consensus finalists largely seen as being North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH). Some have suggested Nikki Haley, Trump’s longest lasting primary foe, may even get the call.
Multiple political analysts, including ex-Obama adviser David Axelrod, criticized Vance over the weekend for his initial response to the Trump rally shooting, claiming he was too quick to make assumptions about what drove the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, to attack Trump.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) is close pals with Donald Trump Jr. and is considered to be a favorite to join the presidential ticket.
Rebecca Cook/Reuters
“Today is not just some isolated incident,” Vance wrote within hours of the shooting. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
While Vance appears to be the more polarizing pick within the party, he’s pals with Donald Trump Jr. and uses brash, aggressive rhetoric similar to that of the former president.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) at a rally for Trump in South Florida last week.
Brian Snyder/Reuters
Picking Rubio, who opposed Trump in the 2016 Republican primary, would cause another issue for the former president. They’re both residents of Florida, and the 12th Amendment requires a president and VP to be from different states.
Trump did not give a specific time for his announcement, nor did he say where he’d first share the highly anticipated name.