Donald Trump's VP picks, ranked

Veepstakes!

If there’s one thing we know about Donald Trump, it’s that he likes a good show.

He is, at heart, a reality TV show producer — and knows, instinctively, what to do to keep people watching him.

“The show is Trump, and it is sold-out performances everywhere,” he told Playboy magazine back in 1990. And nothing has changed in the intervening three and a half decades.

Which brings me to Trump’s search for a vice president to join him on the 2024 ticket — and these lines in particular from a recent Politico piece on his process:

Trump, despite saying he doesn’t think the vice president matters all that much, regularly asks guests at his Mar-a-Lago club for their opinion on different options and, with a flair for suspense, teases his choices in private meetings and media interviews. The process is expected to take months.

“He’s going to draw this out ‘Apprentice’-style,” said one person close to the Trump campaign who was granted anonymity to speak freely.

“Apprentice style” you say?

Trump views the VP pick as just another show — a way to keep all eyeballs on him for as long as possible. He wants to build up the drama (and the media coverage) before eventually unveiling his pick to the world. It’s like “Miss USA” (which Trump once owned) but for politics.

Which is funny because Trump has already, publicly, said two things about his vice presidential pick that run directly counter to the idea of this being some sort of great contest:

1. He already knows who he is picking. “I know who it's going to be,” he said in a Fox News town hall back in January. When pressed on the identity of the pick, Trump replied: “"I can't tell you that really.” Of course not! Drama!

2. He says the VP pick doesn’t matter. In New Hampshire in January, Trump said this of the VP selection: “Well, it’s never really had that much of an effect on an election, which is an amazing thing, both election and primary. It’s never really had much of an effect.”

Sooo……….

I am of the mind that Trump’s VP pick matters more than usual because a) he is old and the VP could, in theory, become president and b) there is still a chunk of Republican voters who are very wary of voting for Trump and may be waiting to see who he picks as his second-in-command before making a decision about the race.