Skip to main content
The Latest

Who Could Trump Pick As His VP? There Are So Many Terrible Options!

With Ted Cruz announcing(link is external) yesterday that Carly Fiorina will be his running mate in his increasingly difficult path to the GOP presidential nomination, we thought it might be time for Donald Trump to start thinking about who he wants as his vice president.

Here are just a few options:

1) Chris Christie

Following his victory in five states on Tuesday, Trump suggested that he would consider(link is external) naming New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was standing by his side and trying his best not to look like a hostage(link is external), as his running mate.

Trump would have to overlook the Fort Lee highway lane closure scandal(link is external), better known as Bridgegate, that weighed down Christie’s unsuccessful presidential campaign.

As we noted before Christie jumped into the presidential race, under his leadership(link is external) “New Jersey experienced multiple credit downgrades, regular budget shortfalls, a failed pension reform plan, fiscal mismanagement that benefited political donors, anemic job growth, a transit funding scandal and mishandling of Hurricane Sandy recovery money.”

Trump would also have to try to restrain himself from continuing to insult the governor, something he has had a problem doing even after Christie endorsed him(link is external).

2) Scott Brown

Trump has also floated former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown as a potential running mate.

“Vice president — hey, that sounds like it could, hey, hey, very good,” Trump said. “Hey, you know what? And he’s central casting. Look at that guy. Central casting.”

Brown, who lost his race for re-election against Elizabeth Warren and later ran unsuccessfully against Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire, was one of Trump’s most prominent endorsers and media surrogates before the New Hampshire contest.

His colleagues(link is external) at Fox News — which(link is external) has(link is external) frequently(link is external) run(link is external) glowing(link is external) profiles(link is external) of the former senator — have also encouraged(link is external) Trump to pick him as his running mate.

Brown has at least one thing in common with Trump: they have both pushed quack medical cures; Trump with his failed multilevel marketing company(link is external) and Brown with his email list(link is external), which once promoted “an outlet that touts shady products like Alzheimer's disease cures and Social Security tricks.” Brown later said(link is external) that he did not approve of the email although, as Media Matters reports, he also rented(link is external) his list to a dubious group “promising to show readers a ‘Weird Trick’ that ‘adds $1,000 to Your Social Security Checks!’”

The two also have a tendency to create anti-immigrant conspiracy theories (Brown once warned(link is external) of Ebola-infected immigrants easily walking across the U.S. border with Mexico), going to great lengths to avoid answering basic questions(link is external) and creating awkward situations with women(link is external).

One problem for Brown, however, is that he is pro-choice, unlike the famously pro-life Donald Trump(link is external).

3) Scott DesJarlais

Scott DesJarlais is one of the few members of Congress to endorse(link is external) Trump, and the Tennessee Republican will surely help Trump win over women voters.

Before running for Congress as a “pro-life” and “pro-family” Republican(link is external), “DesJarlais, a physician, pressured a patient who was his mistress to get an abortion. It was later revealed that the pro-life congressman had approved of his first wife having two abortions, and that he’d had sex with at least two patients.” He also had affairs(link is external) with “three coworkers and a drug representative,” and was later fined for violating medical ethics(link is external).

DesJarlais’ ex-wife also accused(link is external) him of “dry firing a gun outside the Plaintiff's locked bedroom door, [admitting] suicidal ideation, holding a gun in his mouth for three hours, an incident of physical intimidation at the hospital; and previous threatening behavior ... i.e. shoving, tripping, pushing down, etc.”

4) Jeff Sessions

Trump has said that he would like to pick an insider(link is external) as his vice president, so why not go with his sole Senate endorser and “Washington gatekeeper(link is external)” Jeff Sessions?

The Alabama Republican helped craft(link is external) Trump’s plan to deport all undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., as well as his proposal(link is external) to destroy the Mexican economy by blocking remittances in order to force Mexico to pay for the border wall.

Sessions has also defended(link is external) Trump’s proposal to ban the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims from entering the U.S. and similarly expressed doubt climate science(link is external) with his own bizarre reasoning.

5) Mike Huckabee

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has been a relentless(link is external) defender(link is external) of(link is external) Trump(link is external) throughout the campaign, frequently attacking(link is external) Ted Cruz(link is external) while praising the billionaire mogul. Trump even hired Huckabee’s daughter as an adviser after the former governor’s own presidential bid ended.

The two have their differences: While Trump mostly directs his bigotry towards immigrants and Muslims, Huckabee keeps LGBT people (link is external) as his main target(link is external).

While the folksy Southern Baptist minister may not share many of Trump’s personality traits, he does at least share Trump’s proclivity for anti-Obama conspiracy theories(link is external) and patronizing language towards women (link is external) .

6) Ben Carson

After endorsing(link is external) Trump’s candidacy, Ben Carson has emerged as one of his (link is external) worst(link is external) campaign surrogates(link is external).

Nonetheless, there are numerous(link is external)reports(link is external) that Carson isactively(link is external) lobbying(link is external) for a slot on the ticket.

Carson, like Trump(link is external)has a gift for grifting(link is external) and making mystifying, bigoted statements(link is external).

Trump may be wary, however, because Carson believes that God(link is external) was(link is external) behind(link is external) his own, failed presidential campaign.

Bonus: Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin is one of Trump’s earliest endorsers(link is external) and most loyal surrogates, thanking God for his candidacy (link is external) and hailing him for standing up to “all that petty, punk-ass, little thuggery stuff(link is external).” She even defended him when he attacked John McCain, who named Palin as his running mate in 2008, for being a prisoner of war, saying(link is external) that Trump is a hero for criticizing the Obama administration’s handling of immigration and economic policy.

It was also at a Trump rally where Palin suggested that President Obama shares some of the blame for her son’s arrest for domestic assault(link is external).

Trump has said that he would consider appointing Palin to a position in his administration (link is external) because “she really is somebody who knows what’s happening and she’s a special person, she’s really a special person and I think people know that.”

Seeing that she already ran for vice president once before, Palin is clearly ready for the campaign.

After all, what could go wrong(link is external)?