Donald Trump is famous for decisively firing people. But according to multiple reports on Friday, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee tried and failed to fire his own running mate ― all before he’d even formally announced who he was.
CNN’s Dana Bash and NBC News’ Kelly O’Donnell both reported that Trump got cold feet Thursday night over his apparent veep choice, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. According to Bash, Trump was “so unsure” about his offer to Pence that “around midnight last night, he asked aides if he could get out of it.”
O’Donnell tweeted that the real estate mogul was on the phone late into the evening on Thursday, “asking if he could change course on VP pick.”
A Trump campaign spokesman flatly denied those assertions.
And yet, some circumstantial evidence seems to back them up. After news of the horrific terrorist attack in Nice, France, broke on Thursday, Trump tweeted that he would be postponing the highly anticipated announcement of his choice for vice president, which had been slated for Friday morning at Trump Tower in New York.
In the end, Trump made his announcement on Friday anyway, on Twitter.
As The Washington Post reported, the campaign had been giving mixed messages on Trump’s veep situation throughout Thursday. Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, said the running mate announcement was forthcoming, while Jason Miller, a Trump campaign spokesman, contradicted that by saying Trump still hadn’t made a decision yet.
O’Donnell reported that Trump followed the news from Beverly Hills, California, and was “irritated” that leaks had pointed to Pence as his pick. According to O’Donnell, Trump hadn’t notified his other rumored choices, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, that he’d already made up his mind and settled on the Indiana governor.
Not exactly an impressive performance for an aspiring decider-in-chief.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims ― 1.6 billion members of an entire religion ― from entering the U.S.
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