The plane is ready, the fundraisers are booked: Trump’s VP search comes down to its last days

NEW YORK (AP) — The future Republican vice presidential candidate’s plane is currently parked in an undisclosed hangar, an empty spot on its fuselage for where a decal featuring his or her name will soon be placed.

Fundraisers have been planned.

All that’s left: an announcement from former President Donald Trump on who’s his pick.

Senior advisers and longtime allies insist they still don’t know who the presumptive GOP nominee will choose to join him on the ticket — with many believing the choice is still in flux.

The decision will come at an unprecedented time of upheaval in the presidential race. President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party continue to grapple with his dismal debate performance and the intensifying calls for the 81-year-old president to step aside in favor of a younger candidate.

The Democrats’ crisis has given Trump little incentive to change the subject with a VP announcement that would be sure to draw a flurry of attention and focus to his pick.

But Trump will have plenty of opportunities this week to ratchet up the speculation about a process that his team has kept extraordinarily close to the vest.

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