NEW YORK — The future Republican vice presidential nominee’s plane is currently parked in an unidentified hangar, an empty spot on the fuselage where a sticker with his or her name will soon be affixed.
Fundraising events are planned.
All that remains: an announcement from the former president Donald Trump about who his choice is.
Senior advisers and close allies stress that they still do not know who the presumptive GOP nominee will choose to run with him on the ticket. Many believe the choice is still uncertain.
The decision will come at an unprecedented moment of turmoil in the presidential race. Joe Biden and the Democratic Party remains struggling with his poor debate performance and the calls for a younger candidate for the 81-year-old president are growing louder.
The Democratic crisis has Trump little reason to change the subject with an announcement from the Vice President that would undoubtedly draw a lot of attention and scrutiny to his choice.
But Trump will have ample opportunities this week to stoke speculation about a process his team is keeping highly secret.
Trump has two rallies scheduled. The first is scheduled for Tuesday night at his golf club in Doral, Florida, near Miami. The prime-time schedule and location would seem to provide an ideal opportunity to unveil his choice if it is Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a Miami native who is one of his top candidates.
On Saturday, he travels to the critical state of Pennsylvania for an afternoon rally at the Butler Farm Show. The venue, outside Pittsburgh, is not far from the Ohio border, home to Sen. J.D. Vance, another potential candidate.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is also said to be on Trump’s shortlist, having grown close to the former president since dropping his own bid for the nomination before voting began.
Trump doesn’t need a rally to reveal his pick. He could simply announce the news on his Truth Social platform anytime between now and the Republican National Convention, which kicks off July 15 in Milwaukee. Or he could wait until the convention begins to make a grand onstage reveal reminiscent of his days as the host of the reality TV show “The Apprentice.”
Trump has repeatedly said he plans to reveal his pick either before or during the convention. But he has been coy about his choice.
Late last month, before the debate, Trump said told NBC News at a campaign rally in Philadelphia that he had already made a decision.
“In my mind, yes,” he said.
But less than a week later, he told a local Virginia television station that he still wasn’t sure what he had decided.
“Well, I have people in mind. I have so many good people. We have such a deep bench,” he said. “But we’ll make a decision somewhere early in the convention or before the convention.”
“As President Trump himself has said, the single most important criterion in selecting a vice president is a strong leader who can be a great president,” Trump adviser Brian Hughes said in a statement he has issued repeatedly. “But anyone who tells you they know who or when President Trump will pick his vice president is lying, unless that person’s name is Donald J. Trump.”
This also applies to the front runners for the track.
Rubio said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he was still in the dark.
“Look, I haven’t heard anything, I don’t know anything, and you probably know more about this than I do,” he said. “Donald Trump has to make a decision. He’ll make it when he has to make it. He’ll make a good decision. I’m sure I’ll be out there for the next three or four months working on his campaign in some way.”
He also dismissed questions about whether he had discussed it change his residence from Florida if he is elected as “presumptuous.” The Constitution prohibits the president and vice president from being from the same state.
“We will address those issues as they arise,” he said. “But we are not there yet. But we will be there soon, one way or another.”
On NBC’s “Meet the Press” program Vance also said he has not received any news yet: “I have not had a phone call.”
“But most importantly,” he continued, “we’re just trying to get Donald Trump elected. Whoever his vice president is — he’s got a lot of good people to choose from — it’s the policies that worked and the leadership style that worked for the American people. I think we’ve got to bring that back to the White House, and I’m fighting to try to do that.”
On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, a staunch Trump ally, continued to press his fellow South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate.
“I don’t think he’s made up his mind yet,” he said, again making his case for Scott, who he said would be a particularly smart choice if Biden is replaced at the top of the ticket by Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to hold the office.
If Harris is elected, Graham said, “this is a dramatically different race than it is now. I hope people on our side think about that.”
Biden has insisted he will not withdraw, saying only: the Lord Almighty “might change his mind.
Graham praised Trump’s other picks at the same time, calling Burgum “solid as a rock” and saying Vance “could be a good wingman,” but questioning whether the Republican firebrand — once an outspoken critic of Trump but now one of his fiercest defenders in the Senate — could win new states.
Rubio, he noted, is struggling with the issue of his residency, but he called him a “very articulate conservative” who could help Trump “tremendously.” Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, also speaks Spanish.
“If I were President Trump, I would make sure I pick someone who can add value in 2024. Expand the map,” Graham said.
___ Associated Press Editor Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.