Donald Trump was “seriously considering” tapping Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo as his running mate before his team talked him out of it, a forthcoming book claims.
The MAGA-cozy pundit was reportedly floated as a potential VP by Trump as late as mid-July, but his incoming chief of staff, Susie Wiles, shot down the possibility after asserting there was not enough time to vet her.
Trump “was dead serious about Bartiromo and was making the case for her during the flight to Butler, [Pennsylvania],” wrote the Politico reporter Alex Isenstadt in a book excerpt shared with CNN. “She was great with the big-donor Wall Street types and she knew how to do TV, Trump told his team.”
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Bartiromo, a 57-year-old New York native, is said to have been a longtime “Trump favorite” right back to her days as the “Money Honey” when she reported for CNBC from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Since joining Fox from CNN she has staunchly defended the president-elect on air and had infamously shared questions with Trump ahead of an interview in Nov. 2020—his first sit-down after he lost to Joe Biden.
Trump’s incoming communications director, Steven Cheung, did not deny the book’s claims about Bartiromo being considered as a running mate when reached by CNN. He instead praised his boss’ pick of JD Vance, who was chosen days after the Butler rally where Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt.
“Vice President-elect Vance was the perfect choice to be President Trump’s running mate,” Cheung said. “There is nobody who is a better and stronger defender of the America First agenda, and he will continue to be a leader of the movement for years to come.”
Also alleged in the excerpts from Revenge, which is set to publish in March, was that someone at Fox News shared questions with Trump’s camp shortly before he took to a town hall stage last January to be questioned by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum.
“About thirty minutes before the town hall was due to start, a senior aide started getting text messages from a person on the inside at Fox,” Isenstadt writes. “Holy s---, the team thought. They were images of all the questions Trump would be asked and the planned follow-ups, down to the exact wording. Jackpot. This was like a student getting a peek at the test before the exam started.”
The book claims Trump was “pissed” because he felt the questions were “attacks designed to put him on the defensive.” With a small heads up, however, Trump’s camp allegedly had time to workshop answers.
Spokespeople for Fox News told CNN that it does not have “any evidence of this occurring.” However, they said a probe into the matter had been opened.
Chueng did not address the book’s claims regarding the town hall when reached by CNN.
“President Trump was the most accessible and transparent candidate in American history, and it’s a big reason why he won in historic fashion,” he said.
