“Who’s Trump going to pick?” was the breathless speculation for months. “Will it be a former primary foe like Rubio or Kasich?” “No, no, it’ll be a woman like Joni Ernst, he’s gotta pick a woman.” “Nope, it’ll be someone currently in congress to help get bills passed like Bob Corker or even”–hilariously–“Jeff Sessions.” “Nah, Trump is a guy who’ll go with his friends like Newt Gingrich or Chris Christie.” Well, it turned out to be none of the above, and he went with…drum roll please…Indiana Governor and high school principal-lookalike Mike Pence! Mike….uhhh…who?
Mike Pence is a lousy pick for VP. I could see where Trump thought he had to pick someone to solve his “Midwestern Problem,” but Pence does nothing to solve Trump’s other demographic problems—namely, that women, black voters, and Latinos can’t stand him—and he’s paradoxically too physically similar to Trump while being ideologically different in unfavorable ways unlikely to broaden Trump’s appeal.
Trump’s attempts to reach Bernie’s fan base of angry isolationists fearful of a global economy and military-industrial complex aren’t going to like Mike Pence. And neither are people who want anyone other than an older white male on a ticket that already has one. Hell, Pence’s birthday is only a week apart from Trump’s (you would think I could get behind an all-Gemini ticket), and even though he’s a decade younger than Trump he actually looks older. And Trump thinking Pence’s Indiana background will help him with rust belt areas in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio shows a fundamental ignorance of the region, perhaps just thinking “it’s all the central time zone, who cares?”
Several sources—like The Hill’s Dana Bash—are reporting that Trump even tried to get out of picking Pence as VP, because he really wanted Chris Christie while his aides were pushing Pence. Maybe this is because Pence violated the cardinal rule of getting somewhere with Trump: he doesn’t even like Donald Trump. In the Indiana primary, Pence was pulling for Ted Cruz. No wonder Trump was trying his damnedest to pick Christie or Gingrich over Pence, this is a guy who obsessively values people kissing his ass, and to have a running mate who didn’t even back him until after he won the primary? That’s a tough pill to swallow.
All of this is to say to that Trump would’ve been just as well off picking Ivanka Trump—his real top pick—as anyone. She’s young, a woman, Jewish (convert), more moderate than Pence, and actually likes “Big Don.” Plus, you know Trump would love to have a VP that calls him “Daddy.” And Eric Trump said his dad would likely pick a VP that he “enjoys being around, because you’re stuck with them a lot.” [This is the same logic a lot of Wall Street brokers use in hiring assistants or “The Airport Test” as in who you’d like to be stuck in an airport with.] And it’s hard to imagine Trump actually enjoys spending time with Mike Pence.