US elections: Donald Trump in no hurry as he leans into pageantry of vice presidential tryouts

New York: As former President Donald Trump remains stuck in the courtroom listening to salacious details of an extramarital sexual encounter he denies, another spectacle is playing out in the background as his vice presidential tryouts get underway.

The dynamic was on full display in Florida over the weekend at a closed-door fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago club that doubled as an audition featuring a long list of potential running mates.

Trump, at one point, invited many of the contenders on stage like contestants in one of his old beauty pageants. The next day several of them, including South Carolina Sen Tim Scott, South Dakota Gov Doug Burgum, Florida Sen Marco Rubio and New York Rep Elise Stefanik, fanned out across Sunday news shows to sing his praises.

“This weekend, we had 15 people. ... They’re all out there campaigning,” Trump told Spectrum News 1 Wisconsin on Tuesday. “It might actually be more effective this way because, you know, every one of them thinks they could be chosen, which I guess possibly is so.”

The comments demonstrate why Trump is in no rush to pick his potential second-in-command or publicly winnow his choices. For now, the presumptive GOP nominee is happy to revel in the attention as reporters parse his choices and prospective candidates jockey and woo him in an “Apprentice”-style competition.

Trump has said he intends to make an announcement shortly before July’s Republican National Convention, as he did when he picked then-Indiana Gov Mike Pence in 2016.

“In the end, it’s up to him. He will intuitively decide who should be his vice president, and he’ll listen to everybody up until that moment and then he’ll decide,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, one of three finalists on Trump’s 2016 list.

For candidates, he said, if Trump calls and asks them to speak at a rally, “The correct answer’s ‘yes.’” But there are limits to their impact.

“Some of them try to audition,” Gingrich said, “but I never thought it worked that well.”

For now, according to several people familiar with his thinking, Trump continues to mull a long list of prospects: governors, senators and members of Congress, including some who ran against him and lost. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the fundraiser and private conversations.

As Trump mulls his decision, he is watching to see who can raise money, defend him effectively, and perform at political events. He’s especially interested in how they come across on television. Part of what seems to have made the decision harder is that many of the candidates under serious consideration have knocks against them.