Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently ruled out becoming former President Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate on Wednesday as Trump appeared to indicate that DeSantis was on his shortlist via Mediaite.
During a phone call to supporters, which the New York Post heard, DeSantis declared bluntly, “I am not doing that.”
He reportedly continued, “I know some people are really actively seeking it. It seems to me, just from watching kind of the body language and stuff, that you have a handful of folks who seem to be auditioning for it,” before adding that his criteria for running mate “was different” from Trump’s.
“My criteria was, basically, I need someone who can do the job if it came to that, and I would have been the third-youngest president elected so chances are, actuarily, I would probably be in pretty good shape, but you never know what else can happen, it’s happened before,” said DeSantis. “So you need someone who can just go in, day one, no problem, they can do the job.”
The Florida governor then took a jab at Trump, concluding, “I’m not sure that those are necessarily going to be the criteria that Donald Trump uses. I think he’s going to probably use different criteria. I’ve heard that they are looking more at identity politics. I think that’s a mistake. I think you should just focus on who you think the best person for the job would be.”
During Fox News’ town hall on Tuesday, Trump appeared to indicate that DeSantis was on his shortlist.
“The audience has been asked who they think would be a good choice and various names came up,” said Fox News host Laura Ingraham to Trump. “One of them was of course Vivek Ramaswamy, he’s made a big splash. Ron DeSantis, who’s making an appearance today in South Carolina we just found out. Obviously, Tim Scott, Byron Donalds, and a big presence here for Tulsi Gabbard.”
After Ingraham asked, “Are they all on your shortlist?” Trump replied, “They are.”
Trump previously said it would be “highly unlikely” that DeSantis would have a place in a second Trump administration, despite DeSantis’ endorsement of Trump last month.
