Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Freeland, Michigan, USA, May 1, 2024.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
Former President Donald Trump and people close to him are fielding calls from business leaders and wealth donors eager to share who they think Trump should run for vice president, people familiar with the matter say.
Ike Perlmutter, a billionaire and former chairman of Marvel EntertainmentTrump said he thought the former president should choose New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, according to a person briefed on the conversation.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Rupert Murdoch has indicated to several friends who move in Trump’s social circles that he would be happy with a Republican candidate that included Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Billionaire Trump backers in the real estate industry have told the former president’s advisers that they like South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, according to people who have spoken to them. These and other sources for this story were granted anonymity to report private conversations.
Trump was also reportedly tipped off to Scott by Oracle chairman and Republican megadonor Larry Ellison.
A spokesman for Fox, which is still handling Murdoch’s press inquiries, declined to comment. A spokesperson for Perlmutter did not respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.
Some VP shortlists are primarily promoted by one or two extremely powerful supporters. But others are more generally popular with many Trump supporters.
Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio’s popularity was on display last weekend at the Four Seasons in Palm Beach, where wealthy Republicans gathered for the spring meeting of the Republican National Committee.
One person who attended the retreat said Rubio was clearly the most sought-after speaker for donors to pose with for “grip and grin” photos. Other vice presidential candidates at the weekend session included Stefanik, Scott and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. The retreat also included lunch with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
Populists worry donors
Opinions are equally strong among some of Trump’s wealthiest supporters about who the former president should not choose to join him.
Some big donors have expressed hope that Trump will choose a steady hand, someone who could help implement critical policies affecting their industries if Trump wins in November.
“I would imagine that some of Trump’s trade agenda is quite worrisome to a lot of donors, and they would hope that someone there would offer a different perspective on a 10 percent tariff across the board,” said Marc Short, a former chief of staff Former Vice President Mike Pence.
This may explain why some influential Trump donors are particularly wary of Ohio Sen. JD Vance, according to people close to the Trump campaign. Widely considered a serious contender for the Veep Stakes, Vance is an Ivy League-educated populist who favors higher tariffs and aggressive corporate regulation.
The entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy also has influential critics. “It won’t be Vivek,” said a GOP lobbyist close to senior party officials.
Opposition to Ramaswamy is so great, the lobbyist said, that some donors have effectively threatened to withdraw their support from the entire party if the former primary candidate becomes Trump’s vice presidential running mate.
For some Republican National Committee staffers, the donors’ message to Ramaswamy, the lobbyist said, was: “My God, if it’s him, I’m out.”
The race for money
Other donors are more interested in how a vice president might help Trump get elected than what a potential vice president might bring to the office.
High on the list of desirable qualities in this regard is a strong fundraising track record, some of the sources said.
Trump has struggled to keep up with President Joe Biden’s fundraising wave. According to Federal Election Commission records, the former president’s campaign brought in $15 million in March, while Biden’s re-election campaign brought in $43 million.
Rubio, Stefanik, Scott and Burgum were all privately pitched to Trump as top candidates with close ties to top business leaders. Those connections could help Trump’s fundraising efforts if one of them is chosen as his running mate, people familiar with the matter say.
Burgum could even help self-finance Trump’s campaign, just as he did his own Republican presidential bid.
Rubio, Stefanik and Scott also have their own fundraising networks and could potentially provide the Trump fundraiser with something even more valuable: new donors.
“Influence of donors”
Supporting the winning horse in the Veep campaign can pay off big for a donor if the ticket ends up in the White House.
“Trump is very transactional, so a close relationship with Trump’s vice president provides leverage for donors,” said Marc Short, a former chief of staff to Pence.
For example, if a donor close to the vice president were concerned about trade and tariffs, he could say to the White House: “I want to at least be heard before you move on trade policy,” Short said.
But there’s a catch: Now that Trump has completed one term as president, he feels comfortable steering policy in Washington on his own. Therefore, if he is elected for a second time, he may not turn to his vice president as often as he did in his first term.
“I think he relied on Pence a lot because he didn’t have that experience in DC. And now he feels like he already has that experience and thinks he doesn’t need such an active vice president,” Short said.
Likewise, Trump is not expected to be looking for a vice president to help him build bridges to the economy. On the contrary, he is more likely to give preference to a number 2 who he believes will remain unwaveringly loyal to him. Trump has often complained that he felt betrayed on January 6, 2021, when Pence refused to block the certification of the 2020 election results.
For now, however, Trump is in no hurry to introduce his vice president to the world.
Trump spends most of his days in a New York courtroom, where he is being tried for allegedly falsifying dozens of business documents to cover up a hush-money payment to a porn star.
The former president recently told a local television station that he expects to announce his pick closer to the date of the Republican National Convention, scheduled for July 15-18.
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2024-05-08 23:19:17
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