I agree Rand Paul would be a great pick, or Tucker Carlson, Sarah Huckabee, or Kari Lake (not because the latter two are women).
My litmus test is whether they are sufficiently hated/feared by the Left, because beyond carrying the MAGA torch, President Trump’s VP will be his insurance policy, like it or not.
Just as we would rather keep Joe Biden where he is than see the idiot Kamala Harris be ordained as the first woman of color POTUS, we need the Left to be in the same spot - actually preferring to keep President Trump alive and well.
From this perspective, it is actually an advantage that President Trump’s enemies see him as an old, term-limited buffoon. Let’s pick a running mate who the Left would see as a threat. Someone young, someone press savvy, someone who - like Trump - is out to destroy the deep state and owes nothing to anyone.
Not a fan of Kari Lake. She stupidly drove people away by her comment telling people who supported McCain in the past to get out of a rally she was holding.
This “addition by subtraction” political strategy is, well, interesting.
“whether they are sufficiently hated/feared by the Left”
If that’s the criterion, I think that would be Kari Lake or Matt Gaetz.