According to The New York Times Magazine’s Robert Draper, Donald Trump Jr. approached an adviser to John Kasich with an interesting offer:
One day this past May, Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., reached out to a senior adviser to Gov. John Kasich of Ohio.... According to the Kasich adviser (who spoke only under the condition that he not be named), Donald Jr. wanted to make him an offer: Did he have any interest in being the most powerful vice president in history?
When Kasich’s adviser asked how this would be the case, Donald Jr. explained that his father’s vice president would be in charge of domestic and foreign policy.
Then what, the adviser asked, would Trump be in charge of?
“Making America great again” was the casual reply.
If this is true, this would put Dick Cheney’s vision of a robust vice presidency to shame. The vice president would be president in all but name, while Trump would presumably be something of an MC—emerging to smoke, fireworks, and Queen’s “We Are The Champions” every few days to remind everyone that America is being Made Great Again. It’s quite an offer to make to a potential VP and it surely must have been a tempting one to Kasich, who could have been the most grotesque eater in the executive branch since Hoover’s vice president, Charles Curtis. In any case, this is yet another example that can be filed to the bulging folder labeled “Maybe Donald Trump Doesn’t Actually Want to be President.”