Tucker Carlson Tells Trump to Pick JD Vance or the Deep State Could Assassinate Him: Report

JD Vance officially become Donald Trump2024 vice presidential candidate on Monday, but it was clear the Ohio senator was struggling to win over voters until the very last moment.

New York Times reported on Tuesday that “the process that led to Mr. Trump selecting Mr. Vance was even more chaotic” than his selection. Mike Pence eight years ago, and “uncertain until the final hours, with frantic lobbying until the last possible minute by anti-Vance forces, including Rupert Murdoch and his allies, some of which were expressed publicly.” The newspaper noted that Trump “appeared uncertain until the last minute, privately raising some of the negative comments Mr. Vance has made about him in the past.” (Those comments included calling Trump “America’s Hitler” and saying he was “unfit for our nation’s highest office.”)

The campaign against Vance for Vice President reportedly involved Murdoch sending senior executives and columnists from New York Post Office to meet with Trump and make his case against Vance’s candidacy. (The Australian billionaire appears to favor the North Dakota governor. Doug Burgum.) Longtime Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway is said to have “debated privately that other options, such as [Senator Marco] Rubio, better,” according to people familiar with the matter. The hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin also “tried to persuade Mr. Trump not to pick Mr. Vance,” according to Time. (A spokesperson for Griffin told the outlet that the businessman felt there were some good options and that the Trump team was “thoughtful.”)

In contrast, the Ohio senator’s allies have “waged a counter-campaign to reassure Mr. Trump about” picking Vance. Elon Musk reportedly “told Mr. Trump directly that he should pick Mr. Vance as his running mate, describing the Trump-Vance pairing as ‘fantastic.’” (Musk did not respond to a request for comment from Time.) Donald Trump Jr. who has become close to Vance over the past few years has been “pushing…hard” both in public and in private. Even Tucker Carlson personally begged the former president to pick Vance, making wild, ominous claims about what might happen if Trump picked Rubio or Burgum:

When Tucker Carlson heard a few weeks ago that Mr. Trump might be wavering on Mr. Vance, he intervened. Mr. Carlson, who was visiting Australia on a speaking tour, called Mr. Trump and delivered a doomsday warning, according to two people briefed on their conversation. He told Mr. Trump that Mr. Rubio was unreliable—that he would run against him and try to lead the United States into nuclear war. Mr. Carlson, who declined to comment for this article, told Mr. Trump that Mr. Burgum was unreliable, too.

Mr Carlson told Mr Trump in a phone call in June that he believed that if Mr Trump chose a “neoconservative” as his vice president — an acronym for Republicans who advocate using US power to spread democracy abroad — then US intelligence agencies would have every incentive to assassinate Mr Trump to get the president they preferred.

Also clearly hurting the chances of non-Vance candidates is the fact that (1) Trump reportedly views Rubio as “disloyal” for campaigning in 2016 against his friend and mentor, Rubio, Jeb Bush, and wondered if he could be trusted” and (2) Trump “was pushed back by a Daily mail The article describes Mr. Burgum crying at various times.”

According to TimeCalls for him to pick the Ohio senator continued “until Mr. Trump finally informed Mr. Vance of his decision, on Monday afternoon, less than half an hour before he announced his choice on social media.”