Convicted felon and former president Donald Trump is expected to choose his vice president in the coming weeks. (Trump will likely make the announcement just before his sentencing hearing on July 11, to get ahead of a new cycle of coverage.) The two leading contenders, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, are so underqualified that they inevitably draw comparisons to Sarah Palin, John McCain's running mate in 2008. That was the last time a Republican presidential candidate had such an obviously inexperienced and unorthodox second choice.
Given Trump's age and frailty, realistically, his number two may have to take the top job at some point, making this selection more than just a social game in Washington, D.C. So who is this person?
Like Mike Pence, Burgum is an older white guy with little charisma who probably won't outdo Trump. But make no mistake: Pence had national experience and a foreign policy track record. Burgum's credentials are unimpressive, to say the least. (He is very wealthy, though, which impresses Trump.)
Burgum is serving his second term as governor of a predominantly white state (83 percent of the state was listed as “all-white” in the most recent census). It ranks 47th in population, about 100,000 more than Washington, D.C. Its largest city, Fargo, has a population of about 128,000. To be frank, North Dakota bears no resemblance to the United States as a whole.
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In keeping with his state's ultra-conservative roots, Governor Burgum has signed a near-total anti-abortion law and an anti-Critical Race Theory bill. Additionally, “Governor Burgum has signed into law at least eight bills in recent months that target transgender and gender-dysphoric people,” reports The New York Times. “That's more than most other states in what has been a record-breaking year for anti-transgender legislation.”
Burgum is big on the oil and gas industry, not surprising for an energy-rich state, but he's also obsessed with the border — the southern border more than 1,700 miles from his state — so much so that Burgum has deployed the National Guard to “support” Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
That means Burgum, who hails from a sparsely populated, rural, fossil-fuel dependent state, is out of touch with the lives and concerns of vast numbers of Americans and unfamiliar with many of the issues that would land on his desk if he were to succeed Trump. Burgum is wealthier and better educated, but aside from his feisty personality, he would be very much in the tradition of Palin.
Vance, by comparison, makes Burgum seem like a solid choice. Only two years into politics, Vance has yet to achieve anything notable in public office. Worse, he may be the most dishonest MAGA figure on Trump's shortlist. His willingness to embrace MAGA conspiracies and promote dangerous schemes may endear him to Trump. (The downside for Republicans is that at 39, Vance, half Trump's age, may emphasize the president's advanced age.)
Whether defending Russian President Putin over the Ukraine war, downplaying the antics of anti-Semite Nick Fuentes, believing the “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen, or arguing that Trump deserves absolute immunity, Vance gives a bad impression of pandering. Unlike Pence, he has made it clear that he intended to hand the 2020 election to Trump. It's rare for a vice presidential candidate to so explicitly renounce the oath of office in advance.
According to Politico, Vance's culture war track record includes “measures to criminalize gender-affirming care for transgender children, legislation banning federal mask mandates, proposals to crack down on affirmative action policies at colleges, and public support for a ban on abortion after 15 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest, and threat to the mother's life.”
Senator Vance's authoritarian streak — which has ranged from calling for an investigation of Washington Post contributor Robert Kagan to endorsing plans to “summarily fire a significant number of mid-level federal officials” and “openly defiant” the Supreme Court — should scare any sensible American. Add to that the senator's strange hostility to U.S. global leadership (Vance “is deeply skeptical of the so-called 'rules-based international order,'” the Politico article notes) and he emerges as a particularly dangerous character.
No one can doubt that a Democratic vice presidential candidate with a similar background and lack of experience would be roundly criticized as inept and inserious, as evidence of a presidential candidate's poor judgment. If Trump were to choose one of these undistinguished track records, he should be forced to justify his reasons for naming them. Any gaffes that follow would be up to Trump. If voters needed further evidence of the Republican Party's lack of coolheadedness, they could get it by choosing Burgum or Vance.
Perhaps Trump would prefer to choose neither, preferring to diversify with either Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the Republican Party's most reluctant sycophant despite constitutional issues, or Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), a favorite of more “straightforward” conservatives before he became a Trump sycophant. At the very least, either of these three-term senators would be suitable as a running mate. Neither Burgum nor Vance are certainly.
