Trump weighing a female vice president: ‘I like the concept’

Former president Donald Trump “likes the concept” of a female running mate, he said in an interview airing Sunday — his first comment on a notion that has sparked early jockeying among some of the women who could be on his shortlist.

“Are you leaning toward a woman?” NBC’s Kristen Welker asked in a segment of “Meet the Press.”

“I like the concept, but we’re going to pick the best person,” Trump answered. “But I do like the concept, yes.”

“But I really don’t think it’s time” to seriously consider running mates, he went on. “I want to win.”

Several Republican women — including South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake — have been floated as potential partners if Trump wins the party’s nomination.

The former president singled out Noem, who endorsed him at a raucous Rapid City rally last week, for special praise in the interview taped Thursday — the day before rumors of an affair between the married governor and longtime Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski came to light.

“She’s been a great governor,” Trump said of Noem. “She gave me a very full-throated endorsement, a beautiful endorsement actually … certainly she’d be one of the people I’d consider, or for something else maybe.”

Noem, for her part, called Trump “the fighter that our country needs” last Friday. “I will do everything I can to help him win and save this country,” she declared.

Huckabee Sanders, who served as Trump’s White House press secretary before winning the Arkansas governor’s mansion in 2022 and remains a close ally, has appeared on several pundits’ short lists of potential veeps.

Meanwhile, Lake — who lost her 2022 election and fought an unsuccessful court battle to overturn the results — has been a frequent surrogate for Trump in his primary campaign.