Medved: Could Trump Really Pick DeSantis for VP?

Could Trump and DeSantis end up being running mates instead of competitors, joining the Republican politician Party and blazing a trail to sweeping success in 2024?

The idea has apparent appeal, with the Associated Press reporting on countless "fake, automatic Twitter accounts" that put out lavish appreciation on the former President while "aggressively recommending" that the Florida guv would make an ideal option as his candidate for vice president.

Though reports suggest that these hectic bots have actually been generated by sophisticated AI programs, the idea of a Trump-DeSantis ticket also makes some sense to real human beings. National polls show the 2 GOP leaders jointly dominating the race for the nomination, attracting the combined assistance of more than 70% of self-identified Republicans.

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If Trump offered the 2nd spot on the ticket to DeSantis, and he accepted, it's most likely that lower competitors-- Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence, Tim Scott, and so on-- would likely take out of the race. The nasty main battle that a lot of experts predict would be over prior to it even starts. This would spare the Grand Old Party a long season of intra-party squabbles and the wasting of billions of dollars that otherwise could be saved for beating Democrats.

Regardless of the common sense behind this circumstance, it almost definitely won't occur for 3 powerful factors--.

1- Trump won't make the offer.

2- DeSantis will not take the offer.

3- And the Constitution plainly prevents the extremely idea.

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Ron DeSantis, on the other hand, would be a threat to steal the spotlight from the chief from the very minute their prospective collaboration commenced. That's particularly real because on the 2 most controversial aspects of Trump's worldview-- his belief that he really won the 2020 election and his insistence on cutting back U.S. help to Ukraine-- DeSantis appears to reveal a dissenting, if rather muddled, point of view. If Trump-DeSantis won the White House, the president would be Constitutionally prohibited from making another run for the leading job and would inevitably believe Vice President DeSantis of navigating for his own advantage rather than compromising everything for team Trump.

1. A BAD FIT FOR DeSANTIS AND HIS AMBITIONS. The vice-presidential nominee (whoever it takes place to be) would be tainted forever by association with a political polarizer and loser if the GOP ticket went down to beat. It's even likely that Trump would discover a method to blame his running mate for the catastrophe; however, it comes about. And if the ticket dominated, they 'd get just a single term that's sure to be rough: with Trump's CPAC pledge to inflict "retribution" on all his enemies, it's tough to picture that he 'd leave that "Morning in America" radiance that allowed Vice President George H. W. Bush to triumph in 1988 as Ronald Reagan's rational follower.
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Another aspect that would press DeSantis away from the vice presidency is the great possibility that he would hate the task. DeSantis would almost definitely prefer raising more hell in Tallahassee in the 2 years left in his gubernatorial term to participating in the funeral services of foreign dignitaries or biding his time in the Naval Observatory and waiting for Trump to depart or die.

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1. CONSTITUTIONAL TROUBLE FOR A "TWO FLORIDIANS TICKET". The Twelfth Amendment, embraced in 1804 to clarify the performance of the Electoral College, declares: "The Electors shall meet in their particular states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, among whom, a minimum of, will not be a resident of the same state with themselves ..."
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What happens if both top candidates are, indisputably, "residents" of the self-same Sunshine State? Constitutional scholars agree that the text means that any such ticket can't legally capture any electoral votes from the state in which they both reside, so the two Floridians would automatically forfeit the 30 electoral votes of the country's third most populous state-- a dreadful handicap for any Republican seeking the presidency.

The only time in political history that this problem in fact occurred was available in 2000, when George W. Bush (who resided in Austin) chosen Dick Cheney (who resided in Dallas) as his running mate, running the risk of the loss of the Texas electors who were frantically needed in among the closest elections ever. Fortunately, Karl Rove and the other Bush managers comprehended the issue: just days prior to the announcement of Cheney as the Vice-Presidential option, the prospective prospect traveled to Wyoming to officially change his citizen registration. He likewise put his Dallas house on the marketplace to clearly mark the end of his status as a Texas inhabitant, noting his Wyoming villa as his new main home. Some Democrats may have looked askance at these maneuvers, however nobody attempted a legal obstacle, suggesting that either DeSantis or Trump could, if necessary, perpetrate comparable shifts. Would they?

As for Trump, he's constantly been known as a New Yorker and only just recently claimed the status of Floridian, so it's barely unthinkable that Trump Tower when again becomes his main base of operations. The possibility of the happy Master of Mar-a-Lago offering up one of the grandest residences in the nation to enable Governor DeSantis to take a secondary location on the ticket barely appears commensurate with Trump's sustaining sense of his own ducal grandiosity.

Conventional wisdom suggests that if Trump wins the nomination, he will likely seek a female running mate-- Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota, possibly, or defeated gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake of Arizona, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, or Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, or other eligible women.

Yes, the selection of DeSantis for the 2024 ticket would be interesting and unifying, but the problems and downsides surrounding the option make it not likely or outright impossible, whatever the mischievous Twitter bots might say.

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