OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former President Donald Trump has not participated in any of the GOP primary debates and word has it he doesn’t plan to because he continues to dominate the current field of candidates.
But in addition to refusing to share a stage with them, he indicated on Wednesday that no one on those debate stages would be a suitable choice to become his running mate.
“They’ll do anything: secretary of something, they even say VP. Has anyone seen a VP in that group? I don’t think so,” Trump told the crowd of UAW members and pro-union supporters at an auto parts plant in Clinton Township, Mich., a day after President Joe Biden traveled to the state.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, told The Washington Post in an email on Thursday that Trump “was very clear in his remarks” but did not directly address whether the former president is excluding all seven candidates from the debate.
As for who Trump may be leaning towards, he indicated earlier this month that South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem could get the nod after she enthusiastically threw her support behind him during a visit to her state.
“I think she’s fantastic,” Trump said in an interview after holding a joint rally with Noem. “She’s been a great governor. She gave me a very full-throated endorsement, a beautiful endorsement. It’s been a very good state for me, and certainly, she would be one of the people I would consider for something else, maybe. We have a lot of great people in the Republican Party.”
Trump teased that he liked “the concept” of selecting a woman as his running mate, but that he’s also looking for “the right person.”
“You always do a little bit, but I don’t think it’s time,” Trump said, according to the Washington Examiner. “I want to win, and, you know, it’s very interesting about running mates, when you get down to a vice president, they said, ‘Nobody has ever made that kind of a difference.’ It’s still about the person that’s going to be president.”
TRUMP: “She’s been a great governor. She gave me a very full-throated endorsement, a beautiful endorsement actually.” https://t.co/zwWlaOHn1n
— Sean Hannity 🇺🇸 (@seanhannity) September 18, 2023
During his Michigan speech, Trump also rapped Biden for having no real blue-collar chops despite his carefully crafted political reputation as “Lunchpail Joe” over his decades in the Senate. He also warned that Biden’s push for electric vehicles would result in lost jobs for the American automobile industry to China.
“Before I stepped into the political arena seven years ago, I spent my whole life working alongside of Americans just like you. I spent a lot of time with you. You just don’t know that, but I spent a lot of time with you and people just like you now,” Trump said at one point during the speech.
“I put everything on the line to fight for you. I’ve risked it all to defend the working class from the corrupt political class that has spent decades sucking the life, wealth, and blood out of this country,” he continued. “That’s why I’m here tonight to lay out a vision for a revival of economic nationalism and our automobile manufacturing lifeblood, which they’re sucking out of our country.”
“Under crooked Joe Biden you have none of this. You have none of the things we want. Instead of economic nationalism, you have ultra-left-wing globalism. They hate our country. And the workers of America are getting, to put it very nicely, screwed. You’re getting screwed,” he noted further before making a startling prediction.
“Biden’s cruel and ridiculous electrical — think of this — he wants electric vehicle mandates that will spell the death of the U.S. auto industry. You know, it doesn’t matter. I watch it. You’re negotiating a contract. You’re all on picket lines and everything, but it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference what you get because, in two years, you’re all going to be out of business. You’re not getting anything,” he said.
“What they’re doing to the auto industry and Michigan and throughout the country is absolutely horrible and ridiculous. Hundreds of thousands of American jobs, your jobs, will be gone forever because crooked Joe Biden is selling out, but I don’t think it’s him. I don’t think he actually knows what the Hell he’s doing,” said Trump, adding: “He’s selling you out to China.”
