Trump and RFK Jr. have a VP contender in common: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.

In today's edition, senior political reporters Allan Smith and Alex Seitz-Wald report on a candidate who's on both Donald Trump's and Robert F. Kennedy's VP lists. Plus, senior national politics reporter Jonathan Allen breaks down Trump's growing campaign and legal cash problems.

Trump and Kennedy Jr. have one name in common on their VP lists

By Allan Smith and Alex Seitz-Wald

There’s never a shortage of ambitious politicians eager to put their hand up (or have others do so for them) during the vice presidential selection process. But even by usual standards, a wide range of unexpected and unconventional names are already in the mix for this year’s veepstakes.

NBC News reported that Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is rising up the list of Donald Trump’s potential running mates, which the former president estimated stands at 15 people. Rubio, who was derided by Trump as “Little Marco” when they ran against each other in 2016, said it would be an “honor” to be offered a spot on the ticket.

Do you have a news tip? Let us know

Meanwhile, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has considered several contenders well outside the political sphere, including NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers and TV host Mike Rowe.

Now a new name has entered the fray — for both Trump and Kennedy.

Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, is under consideration for both the Republican and independent presidential tickets, two sources familiar with the candidates’ deliberations told NBC News.

It’s a remarkable turnaround for the one-time progressive rising star, who within the span of eight years has gone from supporting Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign to running for the Democratic presidential nomination herself in 2020, eventually endorsing Joe Biden, before then gravitating to the right and becoming a regular conservative media personality and conference speaker.

It’s also exceedingly rare for a politician to attract interest from more than one presidential ticket. But Gabbard’s 2024 possibilities are not fully in her control, nor are they both equally likely.

As one source said, Gabbard would be more likely to seriously consider running as Kennedy’s vice presidential nominee had she not been swept up by the possibility of serving with Trump. This person said Gabbard “was enticed” by the chance of serving on Kennedy’s ticket but is now focused on the possibility that Trump will select her.

Trump allies and insiders say that while she may be getting a look from the former president, she’s an unlikely choice at best, though she could still land another role in the campaign or in a potential future administration.

Read more →

Trump’s cash problems keep piling up

Analysis by Jonathan Allen

Trump has a wealth of cash problems.

For starters, his legal team told a court this week that financial institutions are uniformly unwilling to back a bond for the $464 million civil fraud judgment levied against him and his co-conspirators in New York. That puts him at risk of having property seized.

If the liquidity squeeze wasn’t bad enough, his campaign committee, which takes in the “hard” dollars that are most valuable to campaigns, isn’t raising enough. At the end of February, Trump’s campaign had just $33.5 million on hand, compared to $71 million for Biden’s campaign.

Trump won while being outraised in 2016. He also lost that way in 2020. But he and his team understand that they’re going to need substantial money to compete effectively, even if he can’t match Biden dollar for dollar.

Early next month, Trump plans to host a fundraiser featuring heavy-hitting Republican donors, some of whom had drifted away from him before he sewed up his third consecutive nomination this month. With joint fundraising agreements in place with the Republican National Committee and state party committees, Trump will be able to take in checks of more than $800,000 from single donors. That should help him make up some of the difference.

But he’s still facing four criminal trials and sundry civil actions that are sure to keep putting a pinch on his campaign cash as long as he pays his lawyers through political vehicles.

The big X factor may be the willingness of his fans to bolster the stock price of the parent company for his Truth Social media platform, which could be worth as much as $4 billion for Trump if he sells his stake in it six months after a pending initial public offering. From a campaign perspective, that may be too late for an infusion to fundamentally alter the race. But nearly any problem can be mitigated by several billion dollars.

For now, expect Trump to continue to lag behind Biden in fundraising. But the real question isn’t whether he can keep up with his rival in the cash dash — he probably can’t — it’s whether he will sink himself under the combined weight of legal debt and lackluster campaign fundraising.

That’s all from The Politics Desk for now. If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com

And if you’re a fan, please share with everyone and anyone. They can sign up here.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com