'Complicated': Trump admits his hangups with top three VP contenders in Fox interview
Former President Donald Trump spoke to "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday to discuss his thoughts on the selection of a new vice presidential running mate.
The three candidates widely thought to be in the final running are Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), and Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND) — but there are potential issues with all of them.
In the conversation, Trump was asked about the primary obstacle to Rubio being the choice: the 12th Amendment, which prohibits electors from voting for a president and vice president from the same state — something Trump could theoretically get around by moving his residency back to New York, but would be a hassle nonetheless. Trump said it wasn't a deal-breaker, "but it does make it more complicated. You know, you do that, and it makes it more complicated. There are people that don't have that complication."
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Burgum, who actually ran against Trump for president in the 2024 primary, seemed to give Trump reservations because of the near-total abortion ban he signed in his state — although Trump appointed the Supreme Court that ended Roe v. Wade, he has increasingly liked to say on the campaign trail that each state should decide and that certain abortion bans passed in the wake of the ruling may be too strict. "It's a little bit of an issue," Trump said.
As for Vance, Trump had little negative to say, brushing off a recent report that he was turned off by Vance's facial hair and praising him as looking like "a young Abraham Lincoln."
The former president has also toyed with the idea of waiting until the convention itself, set to start next week, to unveil his running mate. "I'd love to do it during the convention," he said. "You know, in the old days, they did it during the convention, and it kept the convention very exciting, actually. So we'll see about that."