Former President Donald J. Trump suggested Wednesday night during a town hall meeting that he knew who he would choose as his running mate.
Trump, who is the front-runner in the Republican presidential primary, said he knew who he would ask to join him on the Republican ticket, but he wasn’t going to share the name.
“I can’t tell you that really,” Trump said when asked by town hall moderators Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum about a potential running mate during a Fox News town hall in Des Moines, Iowa.
“I mean, I know who it’s going to be.”
He was asked if the running mate might be one of the other candidates challenging him for the Republican nomination, perhaps even former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie who announced Wednesday that he was suspending his campaign for the nomination.
“I don’t see it,” Trump said. “That would be an upset,” he chuckled, adding, “Christie for vice president.”
Christie has been an outspoken critic of Trump, urging voters to cast a ballot for anyone other than the former president.
The New York Times pressed some of Trump’s advisors about the choice, but they could not get a name.
“All I know is what I heard tonight,” said Chris LaCivita, one of Trump’s top aides. “And I’m not going to categorize it any other way than that.”
The Times reported that several women have been mentioned by media outlets as possible running mates including Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota; Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia; and Kari Lake, a former candidate for Arizona governor.
On Monday, the first votes will be cast in the presidential primary season during the Iowa caucus. To win the Republican nomination, a presidential candidate must receive support from a majority of the party’s delegates. For Republican candidates, that is an estimated 1,235 delegates.