Donald Trump may not want to make Kari Lake his No. 2? Nooooo

Dear Donald, (I can call you that, can’t I?)

There’s a report out today, Mr. Trump, that you’ve begun to sour on Kari Lake.

A “spotlight hound”, one of your advisers called her.

“She’s a shameless, ruthless demagogue who wants power and will do whatever she has to do to get it,” one Trump adviser told The Daily Beast.A spotlight hound? Shameless? Ruthless? Doing whatever it takes to get what she wants?

And this is a problem for you, Mr. Trump, how?

Kari Lake perfectly represents Team Trump

The Daily Beast did not name the three advisers its reporter consulted but on the off-chance that this story is true …

… Please, sir. I think I speak for a good portion of the great state of Arizona when I beg of you:

Don’t write her off.

Here in Arizona, we know that Kari Lake would be the ideal running mate for you.

If her credentials — two decades of reading the news and one failed campaign for governor — aren’t enough to qualify her for the second highest office in the land, consider the many ways in which she checks all of your vice presidential boxes:

• Embrace conspiracy theories about 2020 election fraud? ✔

• Embrace conspiracy theories about 2022 election fraud? ✔

• Attack John McCain? Anthony Fauci? Doug Ducey? The FBI? ✔

• Rant about the media and a stolen election and a border “invasion” and a stolen election and Bud Light and a stolen election and the “uniparty” and did I mention a stolen election? ✔

Lake is basically you, sir, in high heels — a perpetually polished, camera-ready rage machine who is phenomenally popular with red-capped people who sport Let’s Go Brandon T-shirts.

Who better to represent you?

They're worried that Lake needs attention?

OK, there was that one time last summer, during a Turning Point Action rally with Ron DeSantis, when she expressed her high-minded appreciation of the Florida governor’s, ah assets.“He’s got ‘BDE’…,” she told the crowd.

“I call it ‘Big DeSantis Energy.’ Right?”

Still, even then she rallied, quickly noting, “He’s got the same kind of BDE that President Trump has.”

Surely, she can be forgiven that stumble.

Another view: Adrian Fontes is the antidote to Kari Lake

Yet now comes the Daily Beast report, claiming that you’ve cooled on Lake because of her incessant need for attention.

This, as she hawks her new book about herself and boldly marches forth on the campaign trail …. through Iowa, through Georgia, and frequently through Mar-a-Lago … in a blatant audition for the No. 2 spot on the Trump ticket.

“You don’t have to be a wizard to figure that out,” one adviser told the Daily Beast. “She is a woman that knows what she wants and knows how to get it.”

If you don't take her, she'll run for Senate

A Lake spokesperson told the DB the drama is a “pathetic” attempt by “Team DeSantis” to divide Trump from his biggest supporters.

Let’s hope so. Let’s hope that you can see through this latest conspiracy and bring Lake on as your wing woman.

Besides, you owe us.

Arizona put you on the political map, drawing thousands of your faithful followers to one of your 2015 early rallies, just a few weeks after you announced you were running for president.

Now it’s time to return the favor and take Kari Lake.

The alternative is that Lake stays here and runs for the U.S. Senate, forcing Arizonans to endure another 16 months of perhaps the most determined (read: delusional) candidate this state has ever seen.

OK, more like 26 months in the event there’s another “stolen” election (read: she loses).

Please, sir, if you have any residual love for the Grand Canyon State …

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Donald Trump may be cooling on Kari Lake? Noooooooo