Ron DeSantis dishes on making Trump’s VP ‘short list’ — and why he’s not ruling out 2028 run
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday he would not consider being Donald Trump’s running mate one day after the former president confirmed the former 2024 rival was on his “short list” — with DeSantis revealing that he was looking at other prospects, including another White House bid in four years.
“People were mentioning me [as a potential vice president]. I am not doing that,” DeSantis told Republicans his presidential campaign had recruited to be delegates to this summer’s nominating convention during a thank-you call, audio of which was shared exclusively with The Post.
The 45-year-old also went in-depth about who he thinks Trump could and should choose as his No. 2.
“I know some people are really actively seeking it. It seems to me, just from watching kind of the body language and stuff, that you have a handful of folks who seem to be auditioning for it,” he said.
“I think my criteria [for running mate] was different than what probably Donald Trump’s criteria will be,” the governor added.
“My criteria was, basically, I need someone who can do the job if it came to that, and I would have been the third-youngest president elected so chances are, actuarily I would probably be in pretty good shape, but you never know what else can happen, it’s happened before.”
“So you need someone who can just go in, day one, no problem, they can do the job,” DeSantis went on, arguing that he would have been “partial to governors” had his campaign advanced that far.
“I’m not sure that those are necessarily going to be the criteria that Donald Trump uses. I think he’s going to probably use different criteria. I’ve heard that they are looking more at identity politics. I think that’s a mistake. I think you should just focus on who you think the best person for the job would be.”
Trump said Tuesday evening during a Fox News town hall he had DeSantis, former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem all on his “short list” for the presumptive 2024 Republican ticket.
Turning to a potential 2028 run for the presidency, DeSantis — who is due to leave his current office in January 2027 — said he hasn’t “ruled anything out.”
“We’re still in this election cycle, so it’s presumptuous to say this or that,” he said.
“I think a lot happens in politics,” the Floridian added, noting he had heard a “lot of people on the ground” in early states who said they would back him next time around.
DeSantis suspended his campaign Jan. 21, after coming a distant second to Trump, 77, in the Iowa caucus six days earlier. The Florida governor also endorsed the former president over their mutual 2024 rival, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Elsewhere in the call, DeSantis addressed the savage attacks lobbed at him from Trump and his surrogates during the campaign.
“I think [Trump’s] got people in his inner circle who were a part of our orbit years ago that we fired, and I think some of that is they have an ax to grind,” he said.
While DeSantis did not mention anyone by name, Trump 2024 senior adviser Susie Wiles helped manage the governor’s successful 2018 campaign and was kept on board to steer the transition in Tallahassee. However, relations between the two quickly soured, leading to Wiles’ removal the following September.
“The dynamic of the race is not that they were attacking me and Republican voters all of a sudden didn’t like me,” DeSantis added. “That wasn’t it at all. The dynamics of the race were, he kept getting indicted and he drew more support out of sympathy for that, and then he had the conservative media that basically rallied to him and made it where a lot of voters thought his nomination was inevitable.
“In Iowa, the reason why turnout was so low,” the governor insisted, was because “a lot of conservative voters … had just tuned out the process because they thought he was inevitable… That was our responsibility to try and change that dynamic. That’s why we were on the ground so much in Iowa.”
The 45-year-old also told the potential convention delegates Wednesday that they should be on the lookout for more news from him.
“Hopefully we have your contact information,” the governor said.
“We’re going to be sending out updates about things we’re involved in … I’m working on some other ways where we can be a little bit more vocal on some stuff nationally, we’re toying with some different ideas.”
Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt shot back at DeSantis’ Wednesday remarks.
“Ron DeSantis failed miserably in his presidential campaign and does not have a voice in selecting the next Vice President of the United States,” she told The Post in a statement. “Rather than throw cheap shots from afar, Ron should focus on what he can do to fire Joe Biden and Make America Great Again.”
Another Trump 2024 adviser, Chris LaCivita, was more blunt in response to DeSantis writing on X that “chicken fingers and pudding cups is what you will be remembered for you sad little man.”
