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Tim Scott’s V.P. Edge & Trump’s Big Money Push

News and murmurs from the Mar-a-Lago money circuit: Larry Ellison’s involvement in the Trump veepstakes, John Paulson’s billionaire donor bash, and the anti-Biden progressive group trying to get serious.

tim scott donald trump
Scott is more of a donor beta-blocker than a pep pill, but he’s got fundraising chops, a distinctly un-Trumpy demeanor, and a reputation—possibly unearned—as a political moderate. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Theodore Schleifer
April 9, 2024

The best vice presidential candidates typically offer something special that the top of the ticket lacks—offsetting a demographic weakness, for example, or counteracting a perceived character flaw. Donald Trump famously plucked Mike Pence from the political graveyard in Indiana to assuage the anxieties of evangelicals; Joe Biden tapped Kamala Harris, at least in part, in recognition of two of the Democratic Party’s most important coalitions.