Trump’s search for a running mate is in its final days

NEW YORK (AP) — The future Republican vice presidential candidate’s plane is currently parked in a secret hangar, an empty spot on the fuselage where a sticker with his or her name will soon be placed.

Fundraisers are planned.

All that remains: an announcement from the former president Donald Trump reveal his choice.

Senior advisers and longtime allies insist they still don’t know who the presumptive Republican nominee will choose to join him — and many believe the name is still in flux.

“I haven’t made a final decision yet. But I have some ideas about where we’re going,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity that aired Monday night.

The decision comes at an unprecedented time of turmoil in the presidential race. President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party continue to do so struggling with his dismal debate performance and increasingly louder calls for the 81-year-old president to step aside in favor of a younger candidate.

The crisis of the Democrats has given Trump little incentive to change the subject with a VP announcement that would certainly attract a lot of attention and focus.

Trump has also been waiting to see how things will go with Biden.

“Honestly, we kind of wanted to see what they were doing. Because, you know, it could make a difference,” he told Hannity.

Options to announce

But Trump will have plenty of opportunities this week to stoke speculation about a process that his team has kept extraordinarily close to the vest.

“It could happen anytime this week,” Trump adviser Jason Miller said in an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”

Trump has two rallies planned. The first is scheduled for Tuesday evening at his golf club in Doral, Florida, near Miami. The primetime schedule and location appear to provide an ideal opportunity to announce his choice if it is Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a Miami native who is one of his top candidates.

Rubio will be at the event, according to an adviser familiar with the senator’s plans who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the selection process.

On Saturday, Trump will travel to the critical state of Pennsylvania for another meeting at the Butler Farm Show. The location, outside Pittsburgh, is not far from the Ohio border, where Sen. J.D. Vance lives, another possible choice.

Also on Trump’s shortlist is North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, who has grown close to the former president since dropping his own bid for the nomination before voting began.

Trump doesn’t need a meeting to announce his choice. He could simply announce the news on his Truth Social platform anytime between now and the Republican National Convention, which kicks off July 15 in Milwaukee. Or he could wait until the convention opens to make a grand onstage reveal reminiscent of his days as host of the reality TV show “The Apprentice.”

He said Monday that the announcement “will probably come a little before the convention, but not much. We might even do it during the convention. I’d love to do it during the convention. … It would make it even more exciting.”

Trump has been teasing his choice for months.

Late last month, before the debate, Trump told NBC News during a campaign stop in Philadelphia that he had already made a decision.

“In my mind, yes,” he said.

But less than a week later, he told a local television station in Virginia that his decision was still in flux.

“Well, I have people in mind. I have so many good people. We have such a deep bench,” he said. “But we will make a decision sometime early or before the convention.”

The leaders say they don’t know yet

“Anyone who tells you they know who or when President Trump will choose his vice president is lying unless that person’s name is Donald J. Trump,” Trump adviser Brian Hughes said in a statement he has issued repeatedly.

This also applies to the front runners for the job.

On CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Rubio said he remained in the dark.

“Look, I haven’t heard anything, I don’t know anything, and you probably know more about it than I do,” he said. “Donald Trump has to make a decision. He’ll get it when he needs it. He will make a good decision. I’m sure I’ll be there for the next three or four months, working on his campaign’s behalf in some capacity.

He also rejected questions about whether he had spoken changing his residence from Florida if he is chosen as ‘overbearing’. The Constitution prohibits the president and vice president from being from the same state.

“We will address these issues as they arise,” he said. “But we are not there yet. But we will be soon, one way or another.”

About NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ Vance also said he hasn’t received any news one way or the other: “I didn’t get the call.”

“But most importantly,” he continued, “we’re just trying to work to elect Donald Trump. Whoever his vice president is – he has a lot of good people to choose from – it is the policies that have worked and the leadership style that has worked for the American people.”

A top ally is still pushing for Tim Scott

On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime Trump ally, continued to push for his compatriot, Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate.

“I don’t think he’s made up his mind,” he said, adding that Scott would be an especially smart choice if Biden were replaced at the top of the ticket by Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black woman and South Asian person descent. to serve in the office.

“If I were President Trump, I would make sure I choose someone who can add value in 2024. Expand the menu,” he said.

Biden has insisted he will not drop out, saying only “ the Lord Almighty ‘ might change his mind.

Associated Press writers Steve Peoples and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.