The Washington Post writes today about the eight leading contenders to be Donald Trump's vice president. Here's my ranking:
Greatest willingness to kowtow: Tim Scott
Overall pure shittiness: Elise Stefanik
Nonentity award: Doug Burgum
Willingness to pretend to be an idiot: J.D. Vance
Actual idiot: Ben Carson
Most pathetically ambitious: Marco Rubio
Strong right arm of retribution: Tom Cotton
Freedom Caucus true believer: Byron Donalds
So what does Trump want in a veep. Someone who will sing his praises endlessly? Scott. Someone spineless? Rubio. Just a generally horrible person? Stefanik. Someone who will eagerly help him in his campaign for revenge? Cotton. All of these have obvious appeal to Trump, so it's hard to predict what he'll do. Wait and see.
It's an even money bet it will be "none of the above", to allow Trump to sneer again about the lying enemy media that keeps making stuff up. But of that field Burgum would have to be the red-hot favorite: a complete nonentity who'd pay for his own campaign, has no independent political power base to call on to make waves if he becomes vice president, ditto inside-the-Beltway networks, and best of all, who would go quietly into that long night in 2028 to make way for whomever Trump chooses to be anointed as the next MAGA nominee taking orders from President Emeritus Trump.
Ah, ninja'd. And the first comment too!
Hot take: Trump will refuse to name a running mate, and, when backed into a corner on it, will pick Ivanka or Jr.
He can't risk another Pence, and is already installing his relatives in key party positions.
Well, he'd prefer Ivanka. Hard to say if she'd snub him or not. If she managed to get him to fuck off, his next mark is Jr.
Very on brand for the "what will he do next?" cartoon campaign he's running.
If its one of the bozos, The second he takes office, he's already a lame duck president, and he haaaas to know that anyone who saw what happened to Pence *and still wants the job* will be angling to run in 2028, and he *haaaaaaaates* that.
I like this. Trump doesn't give a shit about the VP, but we all know he *luvs* all the people coming up to him, big, tough Republicans, with tears in their eyes, asking "Sir? May *I* be your vice president?" I don't think Ivanka would touch it with a ten foot pole, but one of his two failsons? Sure, why not? At least we'd get to see him bitch-slap Don on the WH lawn and tell him to get on the fucking helicopter.
Ahhhh. Good point, and THAT's probably why Nikki isn't on the list
One may become the vp, but considering Trump’s determination not to be held back by “experts” and “professionals “, the rest of these clowns will be his cabinet. But which clown for which department? Hmmm.
I would not classify Ben Carson as an "actual idiot". (There are multiple contenders for that title on the list.) Instead, he is a classic example of a type that Plato wrote about over 2300 years in The Apology: the person who is genuinely good at one thing and then assumes that he is an expert on everything. Unfortunately, American politics -- and society in general -- is full of such people.
As an old boss remarked about a co-worker: "He's got a lot of intelligence but it's all one kind."
The medical profession has even more than most.
Authoritarians don't like deputies: a natural successor is also a natural focus for opposition to the regime. If Trump can get away without selecting a veep, he will. Otherwise he'll pick the person of whom people will say "We can't get rid of Trump, because then we'll get *****".
Lauren Boebert for the win!
First runner-up: MTG.
You certainly picked the two who fit the bill, but I'd reverse the order: Boebert may not be sufficiently chastened as a result of her personal or family shenanigans, but Greene? She'll never shut up or hesitate to show her ignorance & bigotry - a much more dangerous type.
Something McCain should have taken to heart, although in his case it was 'Trust _that_ woman with the nuclear football?' Talk about rookie own mistakes.
I suppose Stefanik or Scott or Carson could give him a small marginal boost in demographic terms… could Carson help in Maryland, given a strong GOP Senate candidate in a blue state? Does Carson actually live in Maryland, anyway? I don’t think any of these yahoos improve his electoral college chances overall.
The same could be said of Harris, I suppose, but Democrats tend to prefer a different type of ticket balancing.
Uglier than a bucket of assholes.
Trump's most consistent factor is who services Trump's ego the best - not what person would be most practical in executing some strategy, but who services his ego. (see for example his legal cases where competence and execution went out the window in favour of service to his ego)
Who that will be in his view ... hard to say, but that will drive his decision, which will without doubt be a decision driven by emotional superficialities, his ego and not a cold calculating analysis.
A pretty young woman. Someone who will be very, very grateful and nice to be with all alone, wink wink nudge nudge. Why bother with someone who might get uppity? Or who has, shivers, qualities other than pleasing the master? His voters don't care anyway who he chooses. In fact they might admire him for going straight for the pussy. And a veep only has the power POTUS gives her and that will be zero in all cases.
Also, why care about his succession since everything is over and all hope is lost anyway when he dies. Also also, his shocking lines are becoming stale and it's time to shock the libs again to the delight of the base.
This has long been my assumption, too.
That's right, Trump likes having pretty women hanging around, like he's a supervillain in an 60s movie.
And he might think having a woman on the ticket will offset the abortion thing.
Alina Habba, or Kellyanne Conway? They're both from New Jersey so they've got that vibe like they might drop a word about you over lunch if you're annoying them.
William S. Burroughs wrote about just this kind of guy in Naked Lunch.
"Someone who will eagerly help him in his campaign for revenge? Cotton"
I think Cotton takes it. He has pretty well demonstrated his loyalty and lack of principles, and most of the others are soft in some way ... which Dumpster probably thinks was Pence's problem.
Stefanik maybe challenges Cotton on these things, but lacks geographical benefit, veteran status, and -- let's be honest -- being a man.
Never trust anyone who was pushed out o the Army at the rank of captain.
I think he was promoted to Captain as a reservist, and not "pushed out of" the reserves at all. By all accounts, the army was very happy with Tom Cotton, except for that part where he described himself as an Army Ranger. FWIW, my brother also went to ranger school, but because he wasn't in a ranger regiment, never refers to himself as a ranger.
Don't forget that Trump looks at people from a "casting director's" perspective.
Who among the men has the best looking (in Trump's eye) wife?
His priorities in 2024 (in order) are:
01. An unsightly, masochistic loyalty above and beyond the SS agent who steps in front to take a bullet.
02. Won't put a foot into his limelight.
03. Bland personality. Not too hot, not too cold, just right, so that there is absolutely zero risk of violating 02 priority.
04. Disgustingly obsequious fountain of ego replenishment.
05. Not black but especially not a black female. Find the black employee in the Trump Org. The first part might be overruled if the person has the above 4 qualities in spades and openly, embarrassingly cuckolds himself, but absolutely zero chance of a black female VP.
The problem with your list is that you have people with higher aspirations with the tiniest of barely noticeable risk of stepping over Trump when he's in dire need of his highest priority -- loyalty.
I think it's between J. D. Vance and Burgum.
Vance has that weird wingnut addiction to the Mary Kay makeup kit, and Doug Burgum's name looks like 'dog burger' and who can't relate to that?
The 12th Amendment to the Constitution prohibits electors for voting for a president and vice president from the same state. That is a problem for Rubio and Donalds, who each need to be a resident of Florida to hold their current jobs.
Its not a problem if you don't care about the Constitution, know it will take longer than the heat death of the universe for anyone to do anything about it and can only be a problem if Trump isn't re-elected. If he is, then he can do anything he wants and if he isn't then that will be the least of his concerns.
Its not a problem if you don't care about the Constitution...
It's not really a problem even if one does care about the Constitution. Trump could simply change his own residency to another state, I'd guess New Jersey. That's what Dick Cheney did in 2000.
My money is on Doug Burgum. Trump"s number one requirement for his number two is someone who will never overshadow him. That makes Burgum perfect for the role.
Probably none of the VP list have any leverage for accepting, but I'm curious as to what Nikki got for saying she'd vote for him. In an election this tight she should have had some serious leverage.
but I'm curious as to what Nikki got for saying she'd vote for him.
She got to keep a viable career as a Republican politician.
She's the odds on favorite to be the republican nominee in 2028.
I always assumed she was running for vice president.
Small addendum to Tom Cotton: psychopath. Look at his eyes and watch his face, listen to his voice, mind his words. He's either a born psychopath or made sociopath. Inhuman.
He’ll obviously go with Stefanik. She reminds him of Tiffany.
He hates tiffany.
Which one is most like his previous vice president? And which one is most likely to refuse to accept election results and otherwise most help Trump become emperor?
Trump will never actually consider Burgum since he was an actually successful businessman. That would be humiliating for Trump.
I'd say that it's a toss up between Burgum and Vance except that Vance is all-too-conspicuously smarter than Trump. Prediction: Whoever Trump nominates, they won't be taller than Mr. 'Six-foot-Three' Trump. TL;DR: Anybody that takes the limelight away from Trump in whatever dimension will be an intolerable VP pick.
Stefanik, Rubio, and maybe Vance are all too ambitious, in that they still think they can be president some day, which would be enough of a reason for them to be nixed as potentially dangerous rivals. Tom Cotton would probably rather be the new Himmler and therefore would become Attorney General or something similar. I've figured the smart electoral choice would be someone non-white-male, which would seem to give Tim Scott the leg up, but everyone is saying that Trump will never pick a non-white guy, so apparently that leaves Burgum, the dimwitted and incredibly wealthy non-entity.