Former President Donald Trump confirmed in a recent interview with India’s NDTV that, should he run for president in 2024, he would not pick his daughter Ivanka Trump as his running mate.
“What about the media buzz that Ivanka might be your running mate? Is there any substance?” NDTV’s Sreenivasan Jain inquired.
Trump responded, “Ivanka? My daughter? Never thought of that one. I’ve never even heard but that’s an interesting idea.”
“That one I have not heard of, but she’s a very capable person that I can tell you. But no, I have not heard that one,” he added
When asked, “Would you consider it,” Trump responded: “No, I wouldn’t. Not my daughter.”
The rumor of Trump and Ivanka running together gained some traction in late 2020 after his former deputy campaign manager, Rick Gates, claimed in his book, “Wicked Game: An Insider’s Story on How Trump Won, Mueller Failed, and America Lost,” that Trump had wanted Ivanka to be his vice president in 2016.
“I think it should be Ivanka,” Trump reportedly said at the time, according to the Washington Post. “What about Ivanka as my VP?”
Gates wrote in his book that Trump then asked a group of aides what they thought about the idea.
“She’s bright, she’s smart, she’s beautiful and the people would love her!” Trump said of Ivanka in the book.
According to Gates’ book, then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence was picked as Trump’s vice president after he delivered a “vicious and extended monologue” about Bill and Hillary Clinton later that summer.
While Pence has suggested that he may run for president in 2024, he is unlikely to run with Trump as the two are reportedly no longer on speaking terms.
The divide stems from a dispute over the results of the 2020 election, in which Pence chose not to reject the electoral college count, arguing that the vice president doesn’t have the constitutional power to overturn a presidential election. Trump has spoken very critically of him for not doing so.
“Mike and I had a great relationship except for the very important factor that took place at the end. We had a very good relationship,” Trump told the Washington Examiner in a March interview.
However, he added that the two have not spoken “in a long time.”
While Trump is likely to seek the presidency in 2024, he has not yet made an official announcement. He told NDTV that he would “make a decision in the very near future” and that it would make a lot of people “very happy.”
As Trump noted in the interview with NDTV, he is currently leading in almost every poll. The only Republican candidate who comes close to challenging him is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
When asked if he considered DeSantis “a threat” to him winning in 2024, Trump said: “I mean, I was the one that was instrumental in winning him an election. I helped him win an election. I think he’s a good person, but if you go by the polls, I’m leading by a lot.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.