Former President Donald Trump has narrowed his list of potential running mates down to four names ahead of a major donor event that he will host alongside Melania Trump in Palm Beach, Fla., over the weekend.

“The spectacle comes as Trump is narrowing his gaze on a handful of potential running mates: Ohio Senator JD Vance, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, according to people familiar with the deliberations as recently as this week,” Bloomberg News reported.

“His running mate could be a crucial surrogate on the campaign trail, helping broaden his appeal with independents, women and minority voters, while also helping tap wealthy donors as he trails President Joe Biden by nearly $100 million,” the outlet added.

Scott, Rubio, and Vance have valuable experience in raising funds for Senate campaigns. Burgum, who sold his software company to Microsoft Corp. for $1.1 billion in 2001, has connections in the tech and energy industries which could help him attract affluent donors.

Still, it’s far from clear who the choice will actually be.

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“Anyone claiming to know who or when President Trump will choose his VP is lying, unless the person is named Donald J. Trump,” Trump senior advisor Brian Hughes told Bloomberg.

For his part, Trump said this week that he would be making his decision closer to the Republican National Convention, which is scheduled to begin July 15 in Milwaukee, Wis.

“We’ll be making that decision, I think, closer to Wisconsin time,” Trump said in an interview Wednesday with a Michigan television station. “It’s very early right now.”

Trump has a chance to test his top candidates, including Burgum, Scott, Vance, and Rubio, who are all expected to attend the weekend donor retreat. However, their representatives did not respond to requests for comment or declined to comment, Bloomberg said. Other potential VP candidates, such as South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem and Representatives Elise Stefanik of New York and Byron Donalds of Florida, are also mentioned on an invitation for the event.

Bloomberg noted further:

Donors planning to attend include Scott Bessent of Key Square Group, who has been floated as a potential Treasury secretary nominee, and private equity investor Tommy Hicks Jr., Red Apple Group founder John Catsimatidis, former Intrepid Museum chief executive officer Bill White and his husband Bryan Eure of Willis Towers Watson will also have ringside seats, giving Trump to see how potential running mates are received by the GOP’s money elite.

The Four Seasons will be locked down for the duration of the event to keep journalists and other unauthorized visitors out of the beach-front complex, according to a person familiar with the planning.

Trump focused on economic issues during a rally in Wisconsin on Wednesday and vowed to quickly turn around President Joe Biden’s inflationary economy.

It was the first time he made a campaign appearance outside of New York on a weekday since his criminal trial began on April 15 regarding the alleged falsification of business records to cover a payment of $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

“When I’m in the White House, the Biden economic bust will quickly be replaced by the Trump economic boom,” Trump said to a lively crowd at the Waukesha County Expo Center. “When I left office, we handed Crooked Joe the fastest economic recovery ever recorded.

“The stock market was at a record high. The price of gasoline was $2 and even less than that a gallon. Think of that. We had periods of time where it was $1.57, $1.87; how does that sound to you? The 30-year mortgage rate was at a record low, the lowest ever recorded. Think of this, 2.65%, that’s what your mortgage rates were. Now you can’t get a mortgage. If you want to pay 8 or 9%, you still can’t get ‘em. And we had no inflation,” he added, according to Newsmax.

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