(Headline USA) Former President Donald Trump reportedly raised some concerns about his top vice presidential contenders over the weekend.
Trump’s VP short-list includes Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla. Each of these Republicans traveled to Mar-a-Lago over the weekend to meet with Trump.
And while the former president had good things to say about each of them, he also lodged several complaints, according to the Washington Post.
On Vance, Trump reportedly pointed out that the freshman Ohio senator had been a longtime critic of Trump before changing his tune in recent years. Vance “turned out to be incredible,” Trump explained, but “he wasn’t a supporter of mine. It shows you I can change him. He was saying things like, ‘This guy’s a total disaster.’”
On Scott, the Post reported that Trump praised the South Carolina senator as an “unbelievable” campaign surrogate. However, as a presidential candidate, “people thought [Scott] was a little bit dull,” Trump said.
On Donalds and Rubio, Trump said he likes both men but is worried about the “minor Florida problem,” referring to the fact that the 12th Amendment requires that the presidential and vice presidential candidates must be from a different state than the electors. This means that if Trump picks a Florida running mate, he would have to sacrifice the state’s 30 electoral votes.
However, Trump could avoid this problem by forcing his running mate to change his residency, or by changing his residency himself.
On Stefanik, Trump had only positive things to say, calling her “a very smart person.”
Stefanik “was in upstate New York when I met her,” he added. “Little did we realize she would be such a big factor.”
Other potential candidates who received favorable mentions from Trump over the weekend included South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, despite the controversy surrounding several anecdotes included in her upcoming memoir, including one about killing her own puppy.
“She’s been with me, a supporter of mine and I’ve been a supporter of hers for a long time,” Trump said of Noem.
