By most accounts, Trump’s VP selection process was a somewhat tortured one—he was evidently quite torn between Pence, Chris Christie, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, and Newt Gingrich. Even after his eventual decision leaked to the press on Thursday afternoon, Trump still waffled, telling Fox on Thursday evening that he had yet to make his “final, final” decision.
Apparently, Trump was having second thoughts until almost the last minute. According to at least two reports, he was reaching out to aides until midnight seeing if he could “get out of it.”
Scoop: @realDonaldTrump was so unsure about @mike_pence that around midnight last night he asked top aides if he could get out of it
— Dana Bash (@DanaBashCNN) July 15, 2016
Jason Miller, a Trump adviser, denied Bash’s claim, though NBC reporter Kelly O’Donnell had multiple sources tell her that Trump was also considering dumping Pence at the last minute.
This is completely false. Zero truth to it. https://t.co/xC8QAV17W3
— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) July 15, 2016
After a terrorist in Nice, France killed over eighty people, Trump canceled a press conference scheduled for Friday afternoon to announce Pence’s selection and, it seems, began (or continued) to doubt his selection. NBC reported that he was also “irritated” that Pence’s selection had leaked earlier than he had hoped. But Pence had to be locked up because Indiana’s deadline for filing for reelection was on Friday. Trump could still theoretically change his mind again, but Pence’s fate in Indiana is sealed: His aides filed to take his name off the ballot Friday morning.