Donald Trump Jr. Issues Warning About Potential Trump VP

Donald Trump Jr. has warned that Marco Rubio might be a risky choice to be his father Donald Trump's running mate.

Speaking on his podcast Triggered, Trump Jr. speculated that if his father picked Rubio as his running mate, "RINOs"—or Republicans in Name Only, a term Trump frequently uses to describe disloyal GOP members—in the Senate would vote with Democrats to impeach Trump for Rubio to become President.

"I have a good relationship with Marco, but there's some truth about having someone that's a little more establishment in there. It's like, wouldn't the Senate RINOS, wouldn't they love that?

"By the time my father's hand moves off the Bible in the swearing-in process, the second it moves off, it would be like, 'Impeachment!'" he said. "There's something about having someone outside the establishment to sort of further protect you from that establishment."

Newsweek has contacted Rubio for comment outside of business hours.

While Rubio's political career predates Trump's MAGA movement, he won his Florida Senate seat in 2010 running as part of the fiscally conservative Tea Party movement, which positioned itself against the Republican establishment at the time.

The Florida Senator ran against Trump in the 2016 Republican Primary. He later dropped out, endorsed Trump, and successfully defended his Senate seat in the election. He was not one of the seven Republican senators who voted to convict the former president in his second impeachment trial.

In recent years, Rubio has aligned himself with several of the former president's trademark political views, including suggesting that the 2024 election will be contested if it is "unfair", that Trump's New York trial (and subsequent criminal convictions) were the result of persecution from a politically biased prosecutor, and, despite being a Catholic with personally pro-life views, recently agreeing with Trump that Republicans should remove a federal abortion ban from the Republican platform.

Speculation has been rife about who will share the ticket with Trump in November, with the former president expected to make an announcement before the Republican National Convention next Monday.

Rubio is one of several prominent conservatives who have been floated as potential choices, including Senators Tim Scott of South Carolina, J.D. Vance of Ohio, and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, as well as North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, New York Representative Elise Stefanik and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity on Monday that his choice "will be very, very good," and that two criteria he will be looking for would be whether they "can do a fantastic job as president" and whether they would be someone that "helps to get re-elected."