Least Shocking Headline of the Day
Veep edition.
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, May 12, 2024
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10 comments
Via USAT: Donald Trump says Nikki Haley not under consideration for vice president.
What next? No Mike Pence? Chris Christie is out?
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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He really wants Spiro Agnew but the campaign was forced to give him the bad news that SA kicked it in 1996. Trump was bigly sad.
Trump should run with Walter Paisley as VP.
Eliminate enemies and add to the White House collection of sculpture!
There was kind of a mini-trial balloon for Haley on Saturday, stemming from a single article in Axios. That’s what Trump was responding to here. It could be entirely a media creation, but there is evidence at least a couple of Trump allies have been pushing for Haley for months. I agree it was never plausible he’d pick her (she hasn’t even endorsed him so far, and he isn’t going to pick anyone he thinks is likely to behave like Mike Pence on Jan. 6; he’s looking for someone who will eagerly participate in the destruction of American democracy he has in store, and anyone who isn’t totally on board for that is a nonstarter), but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still some in Trumpworld who are hoping for it.
@Kylopod:
So there are a “couple of Trump allies” who have are deluded?
It’s really not so much that there is no indication that Trump would offer or that Haley would accept. The delusion is that the sizable number of Republicans still casting votes for Haley in GOP primaries would come around to TFG if only she was the VP on the ticket. Those primary voters are not pro-Haley. They are anti-Trump.
@Kylopod: What Trump really needs is a veep who can bring in a lot of money. Haley might be able to do that.
Has anybody reported on whether Haley is interested? I would think she’d see her main chance as hoping for a Biden victory, then running in 2028 when the voters almost always turn out the party in the White House. Surely better odds than running as heir to the second failed Trump administration.
I predict Robert Bork
Because being open&honest about your intentions is centrist now, even if those intentions are wildly fascist. Excuse me, originalist
@Scott F.:
More than a couple, I’d imagine.
I was hearing about the Haley push–and the backlash from other parts of Trumpworld–back in December, and there were even reports that Trump himself had her under consideration. Not that I’m inclined to believe every inside-report about what Trump is saying in private. I’ve long suspected there are Republican actors with media access who attempt to use Trump as a ventriloquist dummy to push narratives they favor. At the same time, I find it a little easier to believe Trump might have been willing to briefly entertain the possibility before the primaries began and she really took her gloves off against him.
I’m not suggesting that Trump is opposed to picking someone who has attacked him in the past. For one thing, that would exclude just about everyone. And there’s nothing he loves more than when a past critic grovels before him. That’s one of the reasons why J.D. Vance seems like a serious possibility currently.
I should be clear on my position: I do think that picking Haley would be a smart choice politically and would increase his chances of winning in November, compared with many of the other choices currently being floated. And I think that, at some level, he realizes it. I just don’t think that’s his sole criterion at this point.
Yep. She’s read the room and concluded he’s a loser. Even if he were to win, she’s far better off staying far away from him
I tend to think that Trump will go with J. D. Vance.
A pity. I was looking forward to making “Trump and his birdbrain running mate” comments for the rest of the campaign.