Kristi Noem, the Republican Governor of South Dakota, has endorsed Donald Trump as the Republican nominee for 2024. In her words, Trump has her “full and complete endorsement for President of the United States of America.”
This means, of course, that she will not be endorsing DeSantis, Ramaswamy, Pence, Scott, Haley, or Christie, unless one of them edges Trump aside and wins the nomination. Barring some dramatic turn of events, that prospect is looking more and more unlikely all the time.
The Governor of South Dakota is no fool. She knows that Trump won’t run with Pence again. Those two could probably not safely stand in the same room, following the events of January 2021, and the subsequent back-and-forth in the press.
She also knows that if Trump wins the nomination, he will pick a candidate who is “diverse”. (“Diverse” is simply a polite way of saying “not a white male”.)
Trump would have a lot of choices in the diverse category: Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, and many, many others. Any one of them would make a competent vice president, and a suitable candidate to take the baton in 2028. Almost all of them would make stronger GOP nominees for 2024, too.
Trump is notoriously and predictably susceptible to flattery and obsequiousness. The best way to curry favor with Trump is to well, curry favor with him. And Kristi Noem, I repeat, is no fool. What better way to position oneself for the vice presidential slot, than to endorse Donald Trump almost a year before the Republican National Convention of 2024?
-ET