Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) appeared to keep the door open on serving as former President Trump’s vice president if the former president wins in 2024, saying he “wants to do whatever I can to get our country back on track.”
Pressed on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures” over whether he would accept the vice president position if Trump asked him to be his partner, Donalds said, “With respect to being potentially on the ticket, that’s really up to the president.”
“I have no control over that,” Donalds said. “The only thing I will say is, I just want to do whatever I can to get our country back on track. That’s what I have always been committed to.”
Donalds endorsed Trump’s White House bid in April, arguing the former president is the “one leader” who can get the U.S. “back on track.”
An endorsement from Donalds, who hails from Florida, was notable as the head of the Sunshine State, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, fights for the chance to be the top alternative to Trump in the Republican presidential primary.
Donalds’s endorsement of Trump did come before DeSantis announced his White House bid, though the Florida governor’s bid was widely expected at the time.
Donalds’s comments come nearly a week after he dropped out of the GOP Speaker’s race during multiple rounds of voting last week. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) clinched the nomination, but he dropped out hours later when it became apparent he could not shore up the 217 votes needed to take the gavel.
Now-Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) went on to secure the GOP nomination and was elected last Wednesday as the 56th Speaker of the House, capping off more than three weeks of turmoil and GOP infighting since the historic ousting of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)
“For Speaker Mike Johnson, I am happy for him. He’s going to do a tremendous job leading the House of Representatives,” Donalds said Sunday. “You have a man of impeccable character, impeccable integrity, and the members have rallied around him. And we’re going to get back to work and do our jobs.”
Trump has maintained a strong lead in the GOP primary presidential polls, with the crowded field of candidates struggling to make ground. A poll from FiveThirtyEight on Saturday showed Trump garnering 56.9 percent of the Republican primary vote, while DeSantis trailed behind at 14.1 percent and the other candidates at 8 percent or less.