Donald Trump’s team reached out to RFK Jr. about serving as VP

People close to former President Trump made preliminary overtures to Robert F. Kennedy about the possibility of serving as his running mate, The Post has learned.

“Trump operatives expressed an interest in Kennedy early on, but it was all premature,” said one person familiar with the matter, adding that it was “right out of the box when Bobby announced” in April 2023 he was running for president.

“Anything’s possible. I wouldn’t write it off by any means,” the insider continued.

Kennedy, 70, who initially was running as a Democrat but is now an independent, wasn’t interested and has continued to shoot down speculation that he would ever take a job as Trump’s veep.

“I’ve heard the concept. It’s not surprising,” Timothy Mellon, who has donated at least $5 million to Kennedy’s SuperPAC, told The Post.

A second large donor to both Trump and Kennedy said the movement to draft Kennedy — the son of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy who was assassinated while campaigning for president in 1968 in Los Angeles — is still alive in Trump circles.

“It’s very much behind the scenes at this stage. As we progress you might see it bubble up a little bit more,” the donor said. “Bobby can bring new people to the polls.”

RFK is a notable anti-vaxxer, which would make him strange bedfellows with Trump, who famously funded the development of the coronavirus vaccine during the pandemic.

Yet Steve Bannon, a former chief White House strategist for Trump, who remains close to the former president, has also pushed the idea and said in August that a Trump-Kennedy ticket would produce a “massive landslide.”

As Trump’s resounding victories in Iowa and New Hampshire makes him all but the party’s de facto 2024 presidential nominee, there has been buzzing speculation about who he might choose as veep.

Some high profile names which have been floated recently include New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, Sen. Tim Scott (South Carolina) and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio).

Reps for Trump and Kennedy did not respond to request for comment from The Post.