Now that former President Donald Trump is the presumptive GOP candidate for the 2024 presidential election, the pressure is on for his camp to pick a running mate and cabinet members.
According to a report published by Axios this week, Trump’s eldest sons – Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump – are “key players” in the team planning for a potential Trump administration 2.0. What does their involvement indicate about who might help Trump lead if he’s elected to another term in the White House?
Axios said that the brothers would focus on “ideology and loyalty,” citing “campaign aides and close allies to their father.”
A source close to Trump Jr. said that his goal is to “keep the John Boltons of the world outside a second Trump administration,” referring to the former Trump national security advisor who wrote about the former president in his memoir “The Room Where It Happened”.
“He shows a President addicted to chaos, who embraced our enemies and spurned our friends, and was deeply suspicious of his own government,” said a summary of the book from Simon & Schuster. “In Bolton’s telling, all this helped put Trump on the bizarre road to impeachment.”
As for what Trump Jr. is looking for, he told The New York Post that he wants his father’s Vice President pick to be a “fighter”. He told the outlet he has recommended contenders such as Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio); Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who briefly ran against Trump as a GOP candidate and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, a who now hosts a program on X that Trump has appeared on.
Audacy reported late last year that Carlson would be former First Lady Melania Trump’s pick for VP. In February, we also compiled a longer list of possible picks. Typically, candidates announce their running mates around the time of their party’s national convention. Both parties are holding their conventions this summer.
Trump Jr. also said he is interested in former director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe and former White House aide Cliff Sims to be involved in the potential White House transition. In addition to cabinet members and the vice president, a new Trump administration would need to appoint thousands of employees in the executive branch.
According to Axios’ report, neither Trump Jr. nor Eric Trump would officially lead their father’s transition team. However, sources cited by the outlet said they are taking an active role in vetting possible appointees because Trump is frustrated by outside groups weighing in on those appointments. One of those groups is the Heritage Foundation, an organization that has been consulting with conservative politicians for decades.
“Trump campaign advisers believe the groups can be helpful but have been infuriated as the Biden campaign has used the groups' policy papers to attack the campaign,” said Axios. Indeed, top Trump aides Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a statement last year that any agendas and lists from those groups should just be considered suggestions.
Still, Axios said it will be hard for the campaign to be effective without incorporating those suggestions into their plans, even if Trump and his sons are “annoyed” at them. It also noted that as the two brothers become more involved, their sister Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, are stepping back.
In 2022, Audacy reported that Kushner was diagnosed with cancer while serving as a senior advisor in the Trump White House.
Axios said the Trump team declined to comment.