Former President Donald Trump has been asked repeatedly since leaving office if he’s going to make a third run for a second term in 2024, and each time he’s been cagey.
‘Now’s not the time to say,’ is his most deferential reason, at times adding he wants to wait and see how the Republican Party does in the 2022 midterms.
His last chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has suggested that the former president “is more in that out” for 2024, but that doesn’t help much. We still don’t know and we won’t until Trump himself decides to tell us.
That said, for all the speculation about a third Trump campaign, there hasn’t been as much about who would join him atop the GOP ticket — as in, would it be former Vice President Mike Pence again?
Trump himself addressed that very question over the weekend on the sidelines of the North Carolina Republican Convention, which is to say, he didn’t really address it.
“Mike and I have a good relationship, we continue to have a good—but it’s too early to be discussing running mates certainly,” the former president said.
“I was disappointed with Mike on one thing, as he understands and some other people understand, but overall I had a very good relationship with Mike, and he’s a very fine person and a fine man,” Trump told Fox News.
The former president was likely referring to Pence’s refusal to reject the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6. During the breach of the U.S. Capitol building, some chanted “Hang Mike Pence!” after the vice president said he did not have the power to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s election win.
“I was disappointed on one account, but that was a choice that Mike made, and I want people to make their own decisions, and he did,” Trump said.
In recent days, Pence has also addressed his certification of the electoral results from contested states, essentially saying that he felt he had little choice and that he was performing his constitutional duty.
“As I said that day, January 6th was a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol. But thanks to the swift action of the Capitol Police and federal law enforcement, violence was quelled, the Capitol was secured, and that same day we reconvened the Congress and did our duty under the Constitution and the laws of the United States,” Pence told a Republican gathering last week in New Hampshire.
“You know President Trump and I have spoken many times since we left office. And I don’t know if we’ll ever see eye to eye on that day. But I will always be proud of what we accomplished for the American people over the last four years. And I will not allow Democrats or their allies in the media to use one tragic day to discredit the aspirations of millions of Americans,” he added.
Now, here’s some additional sauce: Also in recent days, Trump has floated the idea of sharing the ticket with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“I endorsed Ron, and after I endorsed him, he took off like a rocketship,” he said. “He’s done a great job as governor. I’m saying what I read and what you read, they love that ticket. Certainly, Ron would be considered. He’s a great guy.”