World’s eighth-richest man pushing Trump to pick Tim Scott as running mate
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A tech billionaire who funded Tim Scott’s presidential campaign is reportedly pushing Donald Trump to choose the senator as his 2024 running mate.
Larry Ellison, the co-founder of the cloud computing giant Oracle, has urged Mr Trump’s team to select Mr Scott as the Republican vice-presidential candidate, and may back his campaign in exchange.
Mr Ellison, the world’s eighth-richest man, was a key backer of Mr Scott’s presidential bid last year, injecting tens of millions of dollars into a political action committee (PAC) supporting his campaign.
The South Carolina senator, who withdrew from the race in November, has since become one of Mr Trump’s most vocal supporters.
The pair have appeared at rallies together since the New Hampshire primary in January.
Mr Ellison, who owns a property near Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, has met the former president and his team several times, and is persuading them to adopt Mr Scott as a running mate, Puck News reported.
The outlet said that the billionaire was in talks to donate to the Trump campaign, which is facing a cash crunch amid a series of legal battles over the former president’s criminal indictments.
Mr Trump has remained tight-lipped about his choice of running mate, instead name-dropping a series of potential candidates in his speeches.
So far, the contenders include Kristi Noem and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the respective governors of South Dakota and Arkansas, the former presidential candidate Doug Burgum and the New York Republican representative Elise Stefanik.
A cash injection from Mr Ellison could solve Mr Trump’s financial problems, which have been compounded by high-profile donors’ concerns about bad press and mounting legal bills.
In January, the campaign spent more money than it raised, although it has claimed to have received a funding boost after Mr Trump became the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee on March 12.
Mr Trump is attempting to push back the dates of several criminal trials beyond the November election by launching a series of appeals, including an application for the Supreme Court to rule on his argument that he should be immune from prosecution for actions taken while he was in office.
A trial over claims he paid hush money to Stormy Daniels, the adult movie actress, is due to begin in New York on April 15.
Mr Ellison is one of several so-called Republican “mega-donors” who backed candidates opposing Mr Trump in the Republican primaries.
Mr Trump has reportedly also courted Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX chief, who is worth almost $200 billion (£159 billion), and John Paulson, a billionaire hedge fund founder.
