"... Donald Trump is searching, quite literally, for vice.
"Trump is not so much trying to win an election as he is trying to gain power, so he needs someone who agrees with his Big Lie that he won the election last time, and who will stand with him during his second coup attempt. He does not contemplate ceding power at any later point, so the question of the qualifications of a vice-presidential candidate is not so relevant.
"The vice-presidential candidate cannot be seen to complement Donald Trump, since as a Leader he cannot be seen to have any shortcomings or flaws. His is a specific kind of fascism, though, without any plan beyond retribution. Trump's backers at home and abroad understand that the rage will provide cover to dismantle the operations of the American government -- so that oligarchs need not pay taxes, for example, or so that Russians can commit atrocities in Ukraine.
"And
so those who wish to join the Republican ticket as the
vice-presidential nominee must prove not their worth but their
worthlessness. They must demonstrate that they do not challenge Trump
in any way, and that they would not, should they become president,
provide any resistance to those who would like to see American
government fail. They must engage, in other words, in a politics of
impotence, a determined effort to show that they lack determination..." -- Timothy Snyder, in his Substack "Thinking About...", looking at the only qualifications that matter to the convicted felon Malignant Loser in his search for a vice presidential running mate. Snyder looks at his list of top contenders (former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Sen. Marco "Li'l Marco" Rubio, and grifting opportunist Sen. J.D. Vance), and finds traits that the convicted felon Malignant Loser couldn't abide in most of them. If you want to see who Snyder's (if not the convicted felon Malignant Loser's) pick is, you have to go to the link!
