Trump eyeing Kari Lake as possible ’24 running mate: report

Could two losers make a winner?​

Former President Donald Trump is strongly ​considering a woman to be his 2024 running mate and views failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake as the model for a potential vice president, according to a report. ​

Trump, 76, who launched his third White House bid Nov. 15, sees Lake as someone who could help him shore up the necessary support among suburban women to defeat President Biden, Axios reported on Tuesday, citing people who talked with Trump about his plans. ​

More importantly, Lake — a former TV news anchor in Arizona who has yet to concede her defeat by Democrat Katie Hobbs this past November — meets Trump’s main criteria as a tenacious defender of the 45th president, the report said. 

But Lake, 53, also comes with a downside separate from her most recent election loss, the former president’s allies told Axios. 

Trump doesn’t want a running mate who will outshine him on the campaign trail, and Lake, who traveled to Iowa last month, would be assumed to be preparing for her own presidential run as soon as she walks into the White House. 

At the Conservative Political Action Conference over the weekend, Trump ran away from other GOP candidates in a 2024 presidential straw poll — and Lake won the vice presidential survey, beating out Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

A spokesman for Trump called the ​Axios ​report speculation.

“Anyone who thinks they know what President Trump is going to do is seriously misinformed and trying to curry favor with ‘potential’ VP candidates​,” Steven Cheung said. 

“President Trump will choose his running mate on his own time, and those who are playing the media game are doing so at their own peril​,” he said. ​

Along with Lake, Trump is also considering former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley — currently challenging him for the GOP nomination — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem for his ticket.

​Some inside Trump’s orbit say Haley, who served as US ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration, might be the best choice because she’s the best-known of the Republicans running against him so far. ​​

Huckabee, who was the White House press secretary during part of the Trump years, is also a strong contender but she sidestepped a question in January about whether she would endorse the former president’s 2024 run.