Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota introduces former U.S. President Donald Trump during a campaign event in Rapid City, S.D., on Sept. 8, 2023.JAMIE KELTER DAVIS/The New York Times News Service
The contest to become the next U.S. Republican vice-presidential candidate has to date featured public proclamations of doubt about the results of the 2020 presidential election, numerous fundraisers – one disguised as a poll – and at least one dead dog.
For months, conservative aspirants have sought to elevate themselves into the country’s political firmament by appealing to Donald Trump, the man already campaigning as the Republican presidential candidate.
The naming of presidential running mates has always sparked political intrigue. But never before has that intrigue been so public – and never before has it so closely resembled the medium in which Mr. Trump arguably took his first steps toward a presidential campaign: reality television.
Vice-presidential candidates are typically chosen in the mid-summer run-up to the two major parties’ national conventions. But what Mr. Trump is doing is “the normal process on steroids,” said Joel Goldstein, an emeritus scholar at Saint Louis University who is among the foremost U.S. authorities on the vice-presidency.
It’s hard, he said, not to draw a comparison to The Apprentice, the reality show on which Mr. Trump starred for 14 seasons, starting in 2004. Once again, the former president is at the centre of a televised drama in which it will fall to him to pick a winner – and dispatch the losers. The vice-presidential hopefuls, Prof. Goldstein said, “are prostrating themselves to ingratiate themselves to Trump.”
Mr. Trump has never been shy about enjoying a good battle for his affections. After he took a personal role in picking contestants for the fourth season of The Apprentice, he fondly recalled a selection process in which “they were fighting like cats and dogs.” Those he chose included a former NFL player, a Rhodes scholar, a former stripper he called “tough as nails” and a one-time beauty pageant contestant.
So it is perhaps no surprise that those seeking the vice-presidency have sought to improve their public images and demonstrate their flinty bona fides.
None have done so more overtly than South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. She underwent a dental makeover and, in a newly published memoir, described shooting a dog named Cricket for being too aggressive.
Ms. Noem’s efforts have been so widely pilloried that she may have irreparably sullied her prospects with Mr. Trump.
But she is far from the only person openly seeking the former president’s favour. In January, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott sidled up to Mr. Trump to say, “I just love you.”
During Mr. Trump’s time in office he offered plenty of insight into the kinds of people he prefers in his orbit. He hired his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, because he “liked the outsized, Texan, can-do swagger,” an unnamed adviser told Politico at the time. John Bolton and Larry Kudlow were given senior positions in Mr. Trump’s administration after occupying prominent spots on TV news.
David Shulkin, whom Mr. Trump briefly made his secretary of veterans affairs, described some of the first words uttered by Mr. Trump when the two met inside Trump Tower. “He’s a good-looking guy, isn’t he?” said the then-president-elect.
Years later, Mr. Trump’s criteria have shown little sign of change.
Mr. Trump is “looking to cast someone,” said Richard Levak, a clinical psychologist who assembled personality profiles on contestants in some of the early seasons of The Apprentice.
“He is extremely sensitive to looks and how things look and how things are presented in the media.”
Last weekend, Mr. Trump brought most of the vice-presidential contenders onto a stage at Mar-a-Lago, where he hosted a private fundraising event.
He called Senator J.D. Vance “incredible,” NBC reported. Mr. Scott, he said, “as a surrogate, he’s unbelievable.” He applauded North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum as “a very rich man” who has “made a lot of money.”
He praised Elise Stefanik, the chair of the House Republican Conference, for her intense questioning of Harvard University president Claudine Gay during a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism. Ms. Gay has since resigned. “You destroyed her,” Mr. Trump said.
Dr. Levak recalled his work assessing one Apprentice contestant he thought Mr. Trump would favour: Omarosa Manigault Newman, whom he described as “beautiful, charismatic and feisty.” She went on to appear on Celebrity Apprentice, before Mr. Trump hired her as a senior White House adviser. (She is now openly critical of the former president.)
On the show, the selection of winners and losers could be a fraught exercise, said Jim Ruxin, who worked on the first five seasons of The Apprentice as a video editor.
Mr. Trump typically arrived in the show’s boardroom having done little preparation. “He wanted other people to tell him who were the top two picks and who should he pick to win,” Mr. Ruxin said.
Mr. Ruxin recalled Mr. Trump suggesting an edit to the show on only one occasion: “He said, ‘There’s a closeup of me that’s too short.’” (Mr. Trump was right – the shot needed to be extended by about a half-second.)
He said even Mr. Trump’s praise was calculated. “If he felt praising you would do him some good, he would praise you because of that reflected spotlight.”
Mr. Trump has managed the vice-presidential selection process to ensure a maximum of reflected spotlight.
Earlier this year, Ms. Noem and others urged Republican challengers to drop out of the party’s primary to make way for Mr. Trump. Mr. Scott has called critics of the former president “vile and disgusting.”
Ms. Stefanik has said she “would not have done what Mike Pence did” – certifying the results of the 2020 election, which Mr. Trump lost. Earlier this month, she also filed an ethics complaint against Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is in charge of investigating interference in the transfer of presidential power on Jan. 6, 2021.
The contest has already become fodder for fundraising. In late April, Donald Trump Jr. sent a mass e-mail to supporters with links to an online poll. “CHOOSE A VP FOR TRUMP,” it said. The only way to submit a preference was by making a financial donation.
In the meantime, Mr. Trump can bask in the warmth of support from those vying to be at his side.
“The longer this process goes on, the more he has got these high-profile surrogates out there attacking Biden and echoing the themes that Trump wants echoed,” Prof. Goldstein said. “So why decide prematurely?”