Trump says his running mate was "probably" at meeting with congressional leaders

Donald Trump returned to Congress on Thursday to speak with Republican Senate and House of Representatives leaders. After developing strategies for the next electoral cycle, the former president left a clue about his running mate.

Indeed, while still in the room with the Republican leaders of both chambers, he said his vice presidential nominee was “probably” in the room.

However, as he confessed to Fox News' Aishah Hasnie, he is still not sure about his choice. "I have a pretty good idea. Look, we have some pretty talented people. I have a pretty good idea,” he added.

The favorites to be Trump's running mate

After shuffling dozens of names and calculating each one's cost-benefit, the Republican reduced the casting to four: Marco Rubio, JD Vance, Tim Scott, and Doug Burgum. He recently went a step further and had his campaign team contact each of them to investigate their backgrounds.

However, according to his statement while in Congress, the search seems to have been narrowed down to Rubio, Vance and Scott.

On the other hand, while it is unclear if it is to evaluate a possible vice presidential run, ABC News reported that Elise Stefanik, Byron Donalds and Ben Carson also received similar background requests, although it is not clear how extensive. The members of Congress and the former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development have also been in Trump's consideration in the past.

What Trump's meeting with Congressional Republicans left

Prior to the 2022 midterm elections, political analysts predicted an extremely forceful 'red wave,' which was supposed to turn the country red, with the GOP regaining control of both chambers of Congress. After the results reflected something very different, it was speculated that the fact that the Supreme Court had annulled Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey just months before may have energized the Democratic base on Election Day. Even many Republican candidates celebrated the aforementioned ruling on their platforms.

To avoid this happening again, the former president told legislators that the candidates should speak "correctly" about this topic, with an approach that includes exceptions and highlights the need to leave it in the hands of the states, thus avoiding sanctioning a federal law.

As reported by Axios, "the former president told his congressional allies that abortion has 'cost' the GOP politically, but that it is 'too important to ignore.'"

"He argued that Democrats are the 'radicals' on the issue and 'support abortion so far along that nobody supports that,' calling Republicans the 'party of common sense,'" they added.

Regarding the quality of the meetings, Trump said there was “tremendous unity” in the Republican Party.