From running mate to chief of staff, here’s who could be in a Trump administration in 2025

Nothing has captured the current political imagination more than the Trump veepstakes.

Given that Donald Trump is all but guaranteed to be the nominee, the choice to be his vice president will explain to the voting public what we can expect from a future administration. And this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) offered the perfect exhibition match for would-be administration officials.

Jeffrey Lord, a political strategist who worked in the Reagan and Bush administration, told The Independent at CPAC that most likely Trump would pick either a female running mate or Senator Tim Scott, the sole Black Republican senator who endorsed him last month.

“I do think it'll either be Tim Scott or a woman, except not Nikki Haley,” he said. Indeed, CPAC’s straw poll showed that only 2 per cent of attendees at the gathering just outside of Washington wanted Haley to be Trump’s running mate. The straw poll, run by Trump pollster Jim McLaughlin, also showed that South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and businessman and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy tied at 15 per cent each.

Lord also said it was important to throw off people’s expectations when it comes to the identity of the running mate. In other words, it would probably benefit Trump not to run alongside a straight white man this time. Lord noted that when he worked in George H W Bush’s administration, the White House nominated Clarence Thomas to replace Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Trump picking a Black or female running mate would confuse the competition and deflect criticism.

“Because what they mean is, Black is liberal. And you can apply that also to women, Latinos, and in this day and age, gays,” he said, describing how he believes