President Biden’s disastrous debate performance has persuaded former President Donald J. Trump to continue to hold off on naming his running mate for now, prompting another round of speculation — including within his own team — about when he may announce his pick.
His decision to cede the spotlight to a rival, even temporarily, is a seldom-seen strategy from the attention-driven former president, who has spent a lifetime bending news coverage to his benefit in real estate, on reality television and in national politics.
There was no concrete plan for the former president to announce his pick either last week or this week. But Mr. Biden’s fumbling performance left Mr. Trump in the aftermath with little choice but to further linger over his decision, according to two people familiar with the former president’s thinking. Naming a running mate now would risk stepping on the controversy swirling around his opponent, which has included calls from within the Democratic Party and from liberal news media figures for Mr. Biden to step aside.
Immediately after the debate, Mr. Trump’s campaign representatives were effectively ignored in Atlanta by reporters, who were more focused on drawing explanations from Mr. Biden’s team. By midmorning the next day, when the Trump campaign has typically fielded a couple dozen media requests (and far more after debates in 2016 and 2020), there was only a handful of inquiries from news reporters.
This week, the Fourth of July holiday factors into Mr. Trump’s decision about when to unveil his pick in order to maximize the political — and financial — upswing.
As some on the Trump team see it, an announcement this holiday week risks blunting positive news coverage of the pick as many Americans, including some of television’s top news anchors, are on vacation. The former president has, in the past, judged the impact of an announcement based in part on the renown of the television anchor reporting the news.
Mr. Trump has also been known to announce decisions on social media or directly to reporters with little or no advance notice to his own team. That has created uncertainty around whom he will choose as his running mate and when he will announce it.
“One thing I know for sure is that you can never assume when something is going to happen, because it’s always at Trump’s discretion, and he can decide anytime between now and two weeks to just throw everyone off with a post on social media,” said Erin Perrine, a Republican strategist and former director of press communications for the Trump campaign in 2020.
After breaking from former Vice President Mike Pence over a dispute about overturning the 2020 election results, Mr. Trump is said to have narrowed his decision to three top contenders: Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. Mr. Trump has claimed to know whom he plans to choose since January, an assertion his aides privately dismissed as rooted more in his instinct for political showmanship than reality.
Either way, the former president has about two weeks to share the news with the rest of the world: Campaign aides are planning for Mr. Trump’s running mate to speak from the main stage at the Republican National Convention on July 17.
A campaign spokesman said only Mr. Trump knew whom he would pick and when the announcement would be made.
Mr. Trump has regularly met with top contenders on his plane, hosted them at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and invited them along on the campaign trail. But advisers to both Mr. Trump and several potential running mates said one thing never directly discussed was the actual job of a vice-presidential nominee. These aides said it was unclear whether Mr. Trump intended to hold formal interviews for the position or, perhaps more likely, inform his final pick in a phone call.
Rob Burgess, a Republican strategist who worked on the Trump 2016 and 2020 campaigns, said that an announcement this week would let the former president wrap his pick in the patriotic holiday.
“If it was me, I’d be looking for the best way to maximize my media coverage while also energizing the small-dollar donor base,” Mr. Burgess said. “If he did it around the Fourth, he could introduce the ticket as one that will save the Republic and ensure that our grandchildren and your great-grandchildren will continue to have Fourth of July celebrations.”
Mr. Trump has no public events this week, a time when he has typically taken breaks in the past. During each of his four years in the White House, he spent part of the Fourth of July holiday playing golf at his club in Sterling, Va.
If Mr. Trump keeps his announcement under wraps this week, next week will offer another potential hurdle — or possible opportunity. Mr. Trump had been scheduled to be sentenced for his criminal conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records next Thursday, on July 11. But a delay now seems likely after Mr. Trump’s attorneys asked the judge to postpone after a recent Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity, and prosecutors have agreed.
If Mr. Trump does not announce his pick next week, that will leave a “big reveal” option for the former president, perhaps even onstage at the convention, under a literal spotlight. Mr. Trump has publicly suggested this option is his preference. But such a move would be a logistical nightmare for his team, which is already coordinating a four-day convention in Milwaukee to accommodate hundreds of Republican delegates and donors and thousands of political journalists.
Announcing his pick at the convention would require Mr. Trump to tell a relatively wide group of people about his selection, particularly if he wanted to print signs with both names on the ticket for attendees to wave for the television cameras after the announcement.
“It’s not impossible, and it might increase TV ratings for the convention,” Mr. Burgess said. “And President Trump would love that.”
