Trump considering ditching Pence for 2024 run and picking someone Black or female as running mate, report says

South Dakota governor Kristi Noem and South Carolina senator Tim Scott rumoured for position

Donald Trump is reportedly considering ditching Mike Pence as his running mate for a 2024 presidential run and replacing him with a person of colour or a woman.

Three sources told Bloomberg on Wednesday that Mr Trump, who left office on 20 January after losing 3 November’s election to Joe Biden, is telling his aides that he is strongly considering running for president again in 2024.

The sources claimed that Mr Trump’s aides are urging him to pick a more diverse vice presidential candidate for the role than Mr Pence, a straight white man, who served as his vice president for his four years in office.

Mr Pence was already an unlikely candidate for the position, after a former aide of Mr Trump told CNN last month that the pair have still not healed a rift between them that formed when the then vice president refused to overturn Mr Biden’s election victory.

Mr Trump is reportedly looking to replace Mr Pence with Republicans who stood by him after the election amid his false claims of widespread fraud and his second impeachment trial on claims that he incited the Capitol riots on 6 January with a speech nearby.

Five people died and several more were injured when a pro-Trump mob breached the House, but Mr Trump was later acquitted by the Senate on the charge of “incitement of insurrection”, despite a majority voting for his conviction.

The sources told Bloomberg that Mr Trump is considering picking South Dakota governor Kristi Noem as his running mate in 2024, after she echoed Mr Trump’s false claims of voter fraud and deflected blame from him for the riots.

South Carolina senator Tim Scott, who is the only Black Republican in the Senate, has reportedly been put forward by Mr Trump’s aides as an alternative to Ms Noem for the position.

Mr Scott has been publicly backed by Mr Trump for reelection in South Carolina and defended the former president several times during his presidency.

However, Ms Noem is reportedly the favourite to be chosen, with Alyssa Farah, a former communications director for Mr Trump, telling Bloomberg Radio’s Sound On programme on Wednesday that a female running mate could appeal to voters he lost in the 2020 election.

Bloomberg’s report was dismissed by Mr Trump’s former adviser Jason Miller on Wednesday, who tweeted: “This is fake news. No such conversations are happening”.

Mr Trump strongly suggested that he will run for president again in 2024 during his closing address at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Sunday afternoon.

Speaking at the event for conservative activists and politicians, Mr Trump continued to falsely claim that last year’s election was stolen and added that he would “beat” the Democrats for a “third time”.

Mr Pence is also heavily rumoured to be running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, but people familiar with his situation told NBC News last month that nothing yet has been decided, adding that the election is “a long way off.”

The Independent has contacted the Trump Organisation for comment.