Donald Trump was close to picking veteran Fox anchor as VP but his team talked him out of it, claims book
PALM BEACH, FLORIDA: Donald Trump seriously considered picking Maria Bartiromo, a Fox Business host with deep ties to Wall Street, as his running mate for his 2024 White House bid, according to Politico reporter Alex Isenstadt's new book, 'Revenge'.
The MAGA spearhead was apparently so into the idea that he pitched it to his team in mid-July, just before announcing JD Vance as his actual VP pick. The book even claims the president-elect was lobbying for Bartiromo while on a flight to Butler, Pennsylvania, before "the first attempt on his life."
"She was great with the big-donor Wall Street types, and she knew how to do TV," Trump supposedly told his advisors, convinced Bartiromo was the perfect match. But apparently, his aides weren’t on board.
How Maria Bartiromo almost became Donald Trump's Vice President
For those not familiar, Maria Bartiromo, 57, has a long history in business journalism. She earned the nickname "Money Honey" back in her CNBC days as a New York Stock Exchange floor reporter. She later moved to Fox Business, where she became one of Donald Trump's most vocal media cheerleaders.
The two have had a close relationship for years, with dinners at Mar-a-Lago and mutual admiration for each other’s work. Bartiromo has frequently used her Fox platform to defend Trump’s policies and push his narratives.
But it wasn’t just her loyalty that caught Trump’s attention. He saw her as someone who could charm big-money donors while also killing it on TV (if there’s one thing Trump values, it’s being great on TV).
Despite Trump’s enthusiasm, his team was not feeling it. The main issue was that there wasn’t enough time to vet her properly, the Daily Beast reported.
According to the book, Susie Wiles, who served as co-chair of his 2024 presidential campaign, put her foot down and ended the conversation. "There was no time to vet Bartiromo, as they had spent months doing with other candidates," Isenstadt writes. And just like that, Bartiromo was out, and Vance was in.
Trump’s incoming White House communications director Steven Cheung said, "Vice President-elect Vance was the perfect choice to be President Trump’s running mate. 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."
Maria Bartiromo remains a Donald Trump favorite
Even though she didn’t land the VP gig, Maria Bartiromo remains one of Donald Trump’s favorites, according to Alex Isenstadt.
And why wouldn’t she be? She’s been a die-hard supporter of his policies and a key player in pushing his narratives—especially during the fallout of the 2020 election.
In fact, Bartiromo found herself at the center of some major controversy during that time. She gave air time to Sidney Powell, who peddled wild conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems.
Fox executives were reportedly frustrated with Bartiromo for promoting what they called "GOP conspiracy theorists," but that didn’t stop her. She even took to the free speech-focused right-wing social media app Parler to promote election conspiracy theories, according to Media Matters for America.
Book claims Fox News handed questions to Trump camp ahead of town hall
'Revenge', which is scheduled to be released by Grand Central Publishing in March, also drops another bombshell: Donald Trump’s team allegedly got their hands on the questions for a Fox News town hall ahead of time.
"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."
Despite having this sneak peek, Trump wasn’t thrilled. He supposedly felt the questions were "attacks designed to put him on the defensive."
Fox News denies having any evidence of the leak but confirmed they’re investigating.
Meanwhile, Chueng ignored the book’s town hall claims when contacted 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.
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