Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will hold a campaign rally near Pittsburgh in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania as tensions mount over who he will nominate as his running mate for November’s election.
Trump has announced that he will announce his vice presidential candidate shortly before or during the Republican Party convention, which begins on Monday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and at which he and his running mate will be officially nominated.
In a radio interview on Friday, the former president mentioned Ohio Senator JD Vance, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott as possible running mate.
He said “four or five” people could be considered and compared the selection process to a “sophisticated version of The Apprentice,” the television reality show in which candidates competed for a job at his company and helped make Trump a household name.
The decision will come at a turbulent time for Democrats after 81-year-old President Joe Biden faltered in the debate on June 27.
A growing number of Democratic lawmakers called on Biden to step down in favor of a younger candidate, but Biden himself insisted that he wanted to stay in the race.
Trump’s rally Saturday night at the Butler Farm Show Grounds in Pennsylvania underscores the importance of the state, which Trump won in 2016 but lost to Biden in 2020.
It is again one of the few states likely to determine the outcome of the presidential election in November, and both men plan to visit the state with campaign resources.
On Sunday, Biden visited a black church in Philadelphia and hosted an event with union members in Harrisburg, the state capital.
Three weeks ago, Trump held a rally in Philadelphia, which he touted as an opportunity to court the favor of black voters.
The former president will use Saturday’s rally to talk about inflation, crime and other problems he blames Biden for, the Trump campaign said in a statement.