All the Best People

On the possibility of a Trump-Rubio ticket.

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Former President Donald Trump listens as Sen. Marco Rubio speaks during a rally at the Miami-Dade County Fair and Exposition on November 6, 2022, in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

On Tuesday Semafor reported that Donald Trump is considering several Republican senators for national security positions in his second administration. Among those mentioned were Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton, both of whom entered the Senate in the Before Times and both of whom declined to join the effort to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory in 2021.

“Good Republicans,” one might call them, mindful that the curve on which Trump allies are graded for goodness is steep.

On Wednesday NBC News upped the ante by alleging that Rubio is “moving up the list” of potential Trump running mates. He’s “young and telegenic, he has spent more time in federal office than Vice President Kamala Harris, and, at a time when Trump is bullish on his chances of winning over Latino voters, he would be the first nonwhite person ever to make a Republican presidential ticket,” the outlet explained.

There are reasons for skepticism about all of this, and not just because a Trump-Rubio ticket might have a 12th Amendment problem.

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    “the “deep state” will contrive to have Trump killed in order to clear his new VP’s path to power.”

    One can only hope

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  2. Avatar photo
    CP

    Yes, but…

    Whatever the dreadful consequences of a Trump term with a cabinet filled with cronies and yes-men (and they would be dire—far worse than four more years with Biden and Harris at the helm), the people who voted him in would refuse to acknowledge that any of it is his fault. They have ignored how manifestly unfit he is, to the point that they are blind to his foibles or else celebrate them. So we would not learn our lesson, even if horrible things happened. Nothing is quite as strong, at this moment, as our tribalism and our need to be entertained.

    I would therefore rather have sane people who have compromised, who can mitigate the damage he can do at least a little, with the knowledge that when he passes from the political scene, they will be roasted for the things they allowed him to do as surely as the Gang of Four was blamed for the sins of Mao. That’s how this works, and Pence figured that out. I think they would as well.

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    Gbr0wn

    Trump will do something so stupid and outrageous that he gets impeached and removed (by acclaim), Biden will suffer a stroke so devastating that he can no longer serve.

    In effect the candidate for vice president should be the main consideration

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      CP

      If he were Nixon, sure! But people in his own party know he’s more popular with their voters than they are, and that they are signing their own political death warrant if they speak against him, much less vote to remove him from office. This didn’t even happen when he tried to use force to stay in office. What scenario will really cause right-wingers to suddenly side with left-wingers against Trump, particularly when Trump is the new hot-button issue that people either violently support or oppose? He is the new abortion, the new immigration, the new gay marriage. The emotional energy people used to spend on these abstract issues is now spent defending the next crazy thing he does. How can anything be crazy enough to put his partisan supporters off him, if the partisans on the other side hate him?

      The only thing I could think of would be the “other side” suddenly deciding they loved him and a new right-wing demagogue with broad name-recognition attacking him on that front. The right has by now shown they’re not going to turn on him based on catastrophic foreign policy decisions or decisions to ignore the Constitution.

      As far as less abstract things go, if the economy or gas prices got really bad, even if there were riots, even if there was a pandemic, people would still circle the wagons to defend him. And these things also go wrong when responsible people hold office.

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  4. Leslie OK

    Trump’s Cabinet choices mean nothing. Any Cabinet member will be fired immediately after saying, “That may not be a good idea, Mr. President.” The Vice President will have no influence outside of constitutional duties, and even those will be ignored sooner or later. Do not be fooled into thinking that anyone advises Trump.

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  5. Goatprairie

    There's no way I'm voting for Trump this November whether he had an Abraham Lincoln clone as his running mate. But, of course, Lincoln would probably vomit at the idea of being Trump's veep.
    BTW, Rubio who looks like he's probably of 100% Spanish descent by way of Cuba is most certainly white.

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  6. Dfking35

    There's the credo. I've read the Solzhenitsyn quote many times over the past couple of years, but it finally struck me (thx NC) - every voter of conscience and intelligence (i.e. non-MAGA) should imprint these words on their brain in November: But not through me.

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    John Q. Public

    The potential outcomes, from best to worst, for the upcoming election are as follows:

    1) Trump loses

    2) Trump wins and is surrounded by sane advisors (e.g., Rubio and Cotton)

    3) Trump wins and is surrounded by insane advisors (e.g., Vivek and Mike Flynn)

    It's that simple. Mike Pence was also called a Trump lickspittle for 5 years but when push came to shove, we were lucky to have him in the position of VP. If Marco Rubio doing Trump PR for 4 years is what's necessary to prevent a withdrawal from NATO or a deployment of troops against protestors or God knows what else, then I'll take it. The argument that they would make him more palatable to voters by mitigating his worst impulses in office is also completely moot since he would be term-limited anyway.

    Rooting for bad things to happen to your country because "voters asked for this" is, in fact, unpatriotic.

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  8. R. James

    This column has become a muddled bog of paranoia, speculation and grievance. I'm not following the Pied Piper of Flight 93 Election into the camp of Biden. Biden is also unfit for office and leads a party of statists opposed to conservative values. The only option is to vote for neither of these unfit men.

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    1. George Goodwine

      I agree totally about the column, and obviously the columnist. But I believe it is unpatriotic to waste one's vote and still consider oneself a true member of a republic. I no longer consider my self a "republican" although I will probably always vote that way. The republican party has become too much of a hodgepodge of factions and journalists promoted by the Dispatch etc. I subscribe to the Dispatch and read "Boiling Frogs, to keep an eye on the sick. There is no cure for them. They are in a sort of journalistic hospice until hopefully the end of 24. Then they can whine and complain about all the mistakes either administration elected makes.

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    2. Goatprairie

      "The only option is to vote for neither of these unfit men."

      True, RFK jr. is totally unfit as well. But I've got my choice picked.

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  9. FreddySez

    There has to be someone in Trump-land who realizes the GOP's senate position, whatever it is following this November's elections, would be placed at needless additional risk with special elections in Florida, Utah and Arkansas. Yes, I know the political nature of those states. But why roll dice you don't have to roll?

    Of course Trump-land likes to play dice with dumb senate-related decisions, so...

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  10. Paul in NC

    The message needs to go out to the Trump cult over and over: MAGA is neither feared nor respected. When one announces they support Donald Trump, they announcing to the world that they are gullible and of low intelligence. Joe Biden got it right by openly mocking Donald Trump for his money troubles. MAGA are a**holes at heart, so getting angry only stimulates them. They have no recourse for well-deserved mockery.

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