Trump Likes The ‘Concept’ Of A Woman As 2024 VP Candidate

Donald Trump, indicted four times in the past few months, has turned his legal troubles to his advantage, as his poll ratings testify. The 45th POTUS has swept ahead in the GOP presidential primary race, with his fundraising campaign also making an impressive haul since the Trump "mug shot" taken at Georgia's Fulton County Jail in August.

The Republican nomination frontrunner for the 2024 US presidential elections, Donald Trump, might not be averse to choosing a woman as his running mate. That, at least, is what the former POTUS told the host of ‘Meet the Press’ in an interview.

“I like the concept, but we’re going to pick the best person… But I do like the concept, yes,” the 45th US President told the moderator, while indicating that he was not yet focused too much on picking a potential Vice-President.

Trump also took a moment to single out Kristi Noem as “one of the people I’d consider”, adding that the South Dakota Governor had given him a “full-throated endorsement, a beautiful endorsement”.

Earlier in the month, the 51-year-old when asked if she would consider an offer from Trump to be his running mate, responded:

“I would in a heartbeat,” adding:

“Trump needs a strong partner if he’s going to take back the White House and he’s going to need somebody who knows what it’s like to run a business, to be an employee, earn a paycheck. But also having [someone who has been] a wife, mom, and grandma isn’t bad either.”

Noem joined Donald Trump for a campaign rally in her state, where she endorsed his nomination to run for president in 2024.

Former US president and 2024 Republican Presidential hopeful Donald Trump and South Dakota Governor, Kristi Noem, September 8, 2023.

© AFP 2023 / ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS

As for the other women that have been mooted as potential Trump running mates, the list includes Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.

Elsewhere in the interview, airing on Sunday, the 77-year-old Trump, weighed in on the US presidency age limit debate.

In his opinion, it’s not age that is the problem, quipping that, “some of the greatest world leaders have been in their eighties.” However, what candidates needed to be checked for, in Trump’s opinion, was “competency”.

“I’m all for the tests,” said Trump, recalling how he “aced” his own cognitive test in 2020 at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

As for 80-year old Joe Biden, Trump suggested that the problem with him was not age.

“I don’t think Biden is too old, but I think he is incompetent. And that’s a bigger problem.”

The Democratic incumbent himself has repeatedly dismissed concerns that he will be 82 should he have another stint in the Oval Office, and has made much of the "hell of a lot of wisdom” he has acquired throughout his political career but American voters are not entirely convinced. In fact, just recently a new poll by Quinnipiac University showed that approximately six in 10 US voters - 61 percent - are in favor of a maximum age being introduced for presidential candidates.

Furthermore, 68 percent of voters think Biden, famously known for blunders and mispronouncements during public appearances, is too old to serve for a second term, according to the Quinnipiac poll.

In one of a long line of gaffes, Biden ended his speech at the University of Hartford in June with “God save the Queen, man”. The clip went viral on social media, as Biden’s slip-ups tend to, with netizens puzzled since Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II died in September 2022.

Biden also found himself under the spotlight after he claimed that he used to "teach political theory" at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). Despite his assertion, made during a speech at Maryland's Prince George's Community College, it has since been revealed that Biden never taught a single semester-long class at the Ivy League institution.

Pronouncing names of foreign officials has also been increasingly challenging for Biden.

Trump's latest interview comes as his poll ratings appear to have been given a serious boost by a host of legal woes. The former president has expanded his dominating lead for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, a spate of US polls recently revealed, with voters apparently unfazed by the four criminal prosecutions against Trump.

Screenshot of chart showing results of Quinnipiac University poll conducted Sept. 7-11, 2023. Among GOP primary voters Donald Trump holds a strong lead.

© Photo : Quinnipiac University

Furthermore, a survey earlier in September showed that around 46 percent of voters would vote for US President Biden, with the same amount of voters willing to support former US President Trump if the presidential election were held today.

Donald Trump has been indicted four times since leaving office: in New York, for alleged falsifying of business records related to hush money payments; in Georgia, for alleged attempts to overturn the election; in Florida, for his alleged mishandling of classified documents; and in Washington, DC, for his alleged role in the Capitol riot.

When questioned about the indictments against Trump, more than 60 percent of Republican primary voters insisted that the criminal charges lacked merit and were politically motivated.