The third consecutive Donald Trump presidential campaign is underway. The former president announced his candidacy last month, in hopes of winning his first election since 2016 and regaining the White House. Trump’s 2024 campaign will look a bit different than the two preceding campaigns, however.
Most notably, Trump will run without Mike Pence in the vice president position. Pence, who served as a loyal lapdog to Trump for the majority of Trump’s first term, has since had a falling out with Trump – mostly on account of Pence’s unwillingness to go along with Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen. So, naturally, speculation is starting to mount; who will Trump choose as a running mate? Names are starting to pop up, to enter the conversation, as potential Trump vice presidents.
One name is especially concerning: Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Marjorie Taylor Greene as Vice President?
For the record, I do not think Marjorie Taylor Greene will be asked to join the Trump ticket. Why? Because I think somewhere, in the deepest wrinkle of Trump’s ossified brain is a sense of pragmatism, a connection with the real world. I think Trump knows sharing a ticket with Greene would be a non-starter, that it would just be too much crazy for the average voter.
Yes, a Trump-Greene ticket would be like catnip for a portion of the MAGA crowd, the most hardcore amongst them who believe in their hearts that Hillary Clinton runs a child sex ring or that Huma Abedin sacrificed a young girl before wearing the skin from her face as a mask. (I’m referring to the QAnon and Frazzledrip conspiracies – both of which Greene subscribes to.)
But your Main Street Republican – the guy who runs a small construction company in Nebraska and just wants to keep his taxes lower, or the suburban mom from Ohio who is worried about crime creeping from the big city into her neighborhood – are probably going to balk at a Trump-Greene ticket.
The thing is, the anchor of the hypothetical ticket, former President Donald Trump, has fallen out of favor. Most Republicans are now indicating they would prefer an alternative candidate, say Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, to be the Republican nominee over Trump.
The reason, I presume in part, is because Trump’s shenanigans are finally wearing conservatives down. Adding Greene to the ticket wouldn’t assuage anyone’s fears that Trump was going to be able to compose himself and run a sensible campaign (or presidential administration). Adding Greene to the ticket would signal to everyone that Trump is embracing his most inflammatory, controversial, and unstable instincts.
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s embrace of conspiracy theories
A significant portion of what makes Greene so unpalatable to the average American is her unabashed embrace of conspiracy theories.
Greene is a known supporter of the Pizzagate, Frazzledrip, and QAnon conspiracy theories; Greene has stated openly that links exist between Hillary Clinton, pedophilia, and human sacrifice. Greene also believes that Clinton murdered her political rivals – including John F. Kennedy, Jr., who died in a 1999 plane crash.
Greene has also denied that a plane ever hit the Pentagon on September 11th. Greene also suggested that there were multiple gunmen during the 2017 country concert mass shooting (there was just one shooter.) Greene has also called Heather Heyer’s murder (at the Charlottesville Unite The Right rally in 2017) an “inside job.”
There are more. Several more. Greene is on board with a whole slew of outlandish stuff. It’s pretty remarkable for an elected official.
Greene is arguably unfit for her seat in the House; she’s absolutely, without question, unfit for the vice presidency (which of course would place her within one myocardial infarction of the presidency).
And ultimately, I think – think – Trump appreciates that Greene is not a viable running mate.
Harrison Kass is the Senior Editor at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, he joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. He lives in Oregon and listens to Dokken.
