On President Trump’s Vice Presidential Choice

And Why Tucker Carlson Stands Out As The Obvious Favorite

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Several weeks ago, I wrote an article discussing why Tucker Carlson stands out as the clear favorite among all viable options to serve as Vice President on President Trump’s ticket.  Now I offer some additional commentary, speaking not as a campaign insider but as an impartial observer of how things have unfolded so far this season, with an objective analysis that weighs the extraordinary factors that have made the 2024 race as equally high stakes as it is unprecedented.

For starters, the vice presidential office has undergone a seismic revolution in the Trump era.  Once conventional wisdom for choosing a running mate – such as whether that person comes from a must-win swing state or appeals to a specific demographic – flies out the window, where considerations like loyalty and insurance (to say nothing of lining up a potential successor) reign supreme over those more traditional factors. 

Indeed, a large part of the reason why 2024 is so unprecedented in the first place goes to the shortcomings of Vice President Pence, whose betrayal of President Trump (and, by extension, to his constitutional oath and constituents) jumpstarted a constitutional crisis, whose existential ramifications we still live with today.  Pence’s significant failure arguably catalyzed the chain of events that led to the weaponized justice system and political prosecution of Donald Trump by the DOJ and intelligence agencies.  Accordingly, the significance of the vice president in the Trump era should be immediately understood by most Republican voters, who are now dealing with the real-time consequences of a system headlong into tyranny in no small part due to Pence’s great betrayal.

Loyalty – and the lack thereof – is thus one of two essential factors that must be considered for a vice president to Donald Trump.  And that type of loyalty runs not only with the man (or woman) given the nod, but, equally importance, also with the loyalty of their staff.  The VP’s staff must be composed not just of Washington insiders but of stalwart MAGA devotees from all over the country if need be – with a track record and political and intellectual bona fides to match. 

The second important factor is political protection: whether the vice president will offer adequate insurance in the event of a deep state attack on the president.  From the Mueller investigation to the two failed impeachments to the indictments and groundless charges that have consumed so much of President Trump’s time since his illegitimate ouster, it should be expected that even assuming the most probable scenario at this point that Trump wins in 2024, the same forces hellbent on bringing him down in term one will be waiting to return with a vengeance in term two.  Thus, the ideal running mate would be someone who offers President Trump some political protection – ideally, someone who would inculcate fear into the Washington establishment and their deep state and media apparatchiks. Doing so would keep them at bay and prevent them from repeating the same nefarious playbook as the first term (or, God forbid, attempting something even worse) because they would be similarly afraid about the prospect of the second-in-command ascending to the highest office of the land. 

This explains why someone like Ben Carson or Nikki Haley would be inadequate for the job.  Although loyal to President Trump, Carson is far too mild-mannered to instill the kind of Machiavellian fear needed to abate the wicked forces that are Trump’s enemies, who, if left to their own devices, would destroy what remains of the republic. 

Indeed, a large part of the reason why Carson lost the 2016 primary to Trump was that voters intuited that a nice and amiable politician, however principled, is patently not what is needed to manage the various crises our country faces today, at home and abroad.  The style of Carson or even a Ronald Reagan is the type that is suitable for peacetime – but we are now at war, spiritually if not yet actually, and thus, as the saying goes, war demands wartime consiglieres – to say nothing of wartime presidents.

Haley fails for the opposite reason: not only is she insufficiently loyal to President Trump – ideologically, stylistically, and financially – but moreover, her interests broadly align with the interests of the same actors operating behind the scenes in Washington that are intent on subverting a second Trump term, and now working busily in preparation for that possibility.  The Nikki Haley types can easily be controlled, both directly through a mutual alignment of interests, and indirectly – via special interests threatening to withhold money. This might be explained in part by the fact that Haley’s fortune derives, much like the Clintons, exclusively from her various government offices and is not from private sector entrepreneurship like that of Donald Trump. There is also the question of blackmail and, downstream from that, whether someone with Haley’s intellectual, physical, and moral aptitude could withstand the kind of manipulation and coercion techniques that she would inevitably and immediately face if Trump were removed from office prematurely and she became president as a result. Indeed, there remains the real threat that Haley would work to subvert Trump as vice president, replicating similar tactics used by Pence and his staff while he was in office through cooperation with the deep state.

Tucker Carlson thus stands out as the clear favorite – offering the essential qualities of loyalty and protection that no other candidate can match.  Donald Trump’s poll numbers this cycle are so overwhelmingly favorable – he leads by double-digit margins in certain states, like Nevada, that he carried in neither 2016 nor 2020 – that even with some amount of fraud factored into the equation (which, based on these poll numbers, would have to occur at a level well beyond 2020) he will likely still easily win re-election next year. 

Because Trump, by and large, has the support of the American people, who, regardless of their opinion of him personally, recognize his fate as being inextricably linked with America’s ultimate fate – whether we have rights to speak and assemble and can have equal justice under the law – this helps explain his surging momentum.

As such, there is far less urgency now to pick someone this year from a pivotal swing state, such as Kari Lake from Arizona or Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia, as the need to pander to a certain voter group is arguably less geographically particularized than ever before.  Ditto too on demographics: the conventional narrative that, say, you cannot pair two white men on the presidential ticket was obliterated in 2016 – and continues to be eroded each and every day, especially in light of Trump’s extraordinary support for a Republican (who happens to be a straight white male) among black Americans, Hispanic Americans, and other traditionally Democrat-leaning voter blocs. 

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Less important ultimately is checking off some identity politics box, which is plainly wrong and arguably immoral because it selects candidates based on immutable characteristics over merit, an act that is fundamentally antithetical to America’s founding creed. 

Moreover, it gives moral credence to the Left’s warped system of morality – one that is communistic to its core because it elevates the weak and the interests of a group undeserving of political leadership at the expense of the strong and deserving.  Furthermore, it dresses up that decision in the spirit of “equity,” a perversion of the Founders’ understanding of equality, which valued equal opportunity, not equal outcomes.  Thus, in a contest between, for example, Ben Carson, who cannot resonate with voters en masse, and Tucker Carlson, who can, the decision to choose the latter over the former could not be clearer.

Beyond that fact, Tucker harbors other qualities that would make a presidential pairing with Trump formidable.  First, he mitigates the question of Trump’s age. At just 54 years old, he is a spring chicken for any would-be politician and almost a generation younger than Trump himself, who will be — an albeit vigorous — 78 by the time he is inaugurated in January of 2025.  Second, Tucker is the consummate political outsider: he worked in the media his entire life and never held elected office – much like Trump before he made that fateful escalator descent in 2015. 

Moreover, Carlson shares many of the same enemies as Trump: he was personally forced out of Fox News, surely to the delight of the Murdoch family. The Murdoch’s have been actively working to undermine President Trump since the day he left office through ongoing censorship of him, his rallies, and his media surrogates, coupled with behind-the-scenes scheming to elevate his Republican primary opponents, like Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, over him by elevating their public profiles through media hits. 

Tucker’s overall political philosophy – one of populism that prioritizes America First principles and policies at home and abroad, is in lockstep with Donald Trump’s, and arguably on certain issues (such as the Middle East and mandates), goes beyond what Trump has or is willing to say in public, offering a nice complement to the head of the ticket.  Tucker’s rhetoric has also been powerful on the issues that matter.  He has the charisma that easily resonates with audiences, unlike so many stilted politicians, and can adorn his political speeches with humor, a rarity in politics. He also has a natural penchant for storytelling, making him an entertaining spectacle and a worthy supplement to the headline act that would doubtless be a hit at rallies and on the campaign trail.

Tucker Carlson making a recent speech in Brookfield Wisconsin, showcasing his rhetorical talents, humor, intellect, and wit.

Although younger than Trump, Tucker is not so young – like Vivek Ramaswamy – where youth necessarily might raise questions or even doubts about his loyalties over the long run for being still relatively unknown.  Tucker has been involved in American politics for decades now – he has significant name recognition, unlike a Ramaswamy, by the public writ large, and he offers a reliable enough voice such that you know pretty much what you will get from him and where he stands.  In short, unlike Ramaswamy, Carlson is a known commodity.

Furthermore, Carlson is very well traveled, both at home and abroad (he has, for example, recently been making trips to virtually every town in Wisconsin, to say nothing of his litany of foreign escapades in just his post-Fox career, to regions as diverse as Hungary to Romania to Spain to Argentina), and has been around politicians long enough to know what to say, and how to play the game.

It is thus no shock that Carlson has relationships with some of America’s most influential powerbrokers in politics and business and the public presence to command respect among the international community in a way that no other candidate, save Trump, likely can pull off.  He also is wealthy, if not a billionaire like President Trump. The public knows that he made his wealth in various media ventures and can easily divine its source, unlike Ramaswamy, whose fortune, although lucrative and admirably self-made, raises a few concerns — and may even become a liability, politically if not legally — given its heavy ties to Big Pharma. 

That is not to say that other fairly loyal contenders, such as Ramaswamy and Ben Carson, have no place in a future Trump administration.  It is, however, to say that the vice presidential role is as important, and indeed I would argue much more so, especially in light of January 6, than any cabinet position in the next Trump administration.  Even if the office has few official powers, the informal protection and insurance it would afford to combat deep state chicaneries is indispensable. 

Tucker’s presence in the White House would also establish the kind of succession that is vital for the long-term success of the MAGA movement, which must necessarily live well beyond Trump’s next four years in office. The work needed to restore the American republic to full strength will require at least another generation. Simply put: our nation cannot afford any more setbacks of the kind we are experiencing right now with Biden’s illegitimate and radically destructive regime. 

As a media personality, Tucker is naturally used to and adept at speaking on long tangents to the public. He can keep things interesting in his public speeches while making rather complicated issues and observations about our maladies easily digestible for an audience of laymen.  That will help tremendously on not just the campaign trail, where it will surely be an asset, particularly if Trump continues to run into the same kind of legal foibles in 2024, which should be expected, given the indictments and pending court appearances.  But once Trump gets back into office, Tucker is primed to be an excellent spokesman for the administration’s policies. He can use that time in office to potentially tour the country and rally support and garner enthusiasm on behalf of the President in a way that Mike Pence could never dream of.

The road to getting to a Trump-Carson ticket is, admittedly, not the easiest: both men are larger-than-life personalities in their own right.  Both men have a deep sense of pride, especially given that they are both self-made in their respective fields and, therefore, are bound to have myriad other commitments they might instead prefer to focus on.  In Tucker’s case, the idea of playing second fiddle may not sound particularly appetizing – and the sacrifices, both personally and to one’s own family, that would be required of a vice president, especially in our profoundly polarized age, is no doubt less than appealing.

All told, however, it is unmistakable that no other person could add the star-power that Tucker Carlson would for Donald Trump.  It is for this reason that people like Matt Gaetz have been so enthusiastic about the idea, and why Tucker has placed decidedly ahead of any other potential candidate in recent grassroots polls, such as the one done earlier this month at the TPUSA AmFest conference in Arizona, where Carlson also was featured as keynote speaker. 

Both Trump and Carlson should reflect deeply on the current state of affairs, and recognize their shared fate – perhaps even Providential fate – may be propelling them in the same direction to take down a common enemy that would otherwise put asunder what remains of the republic.  Such a collaboration would also surely go down as one of the greatest ever seen in history.

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A slightly modified version of this piece was originally published in American Greatness, and can be found here.

Paul Ingrassia is a Law Clerk at The McBride Law Firm, PLLC. He graduated from Cornell Law School in 2022 and is on the Board of Advisors of the New York Young Republican Club. He is also a two-time Claremont Fellow. Follow him on Twitter @PaulIngrassia, Substack, Truth Social, and Rumble.