Ex-Trump aide Peter Navarro says the former president should pick Ron DeSantis as his 2024 running mate instead of 'losers like Nikki Haley, Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley'

• Ex-Trump aide Peter Navarro says Trump should pick Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as his running mate.
• Navarro said a Trump-DeSantis ticket would be "unstoppable" and called on the pair to consider it.

Trump-era White House advisor Peter Navarro weighed in this week on who his former boss should choose to be on the ticket with him in 2024.

Navarro said on Thursday that he thinks former President Donald Trump should lock in a running mate early, highlighting who he thought was a good option. He recommended that Trump pick "high-probability targets" Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis while avoiding "danger zone losers like Nikki Haley, Ted Cruz, and Josh Hawley."

Navarro then expanded on his choices in an opinion piece published by the Daily Caller on Thursday, in which he urged Trump to pick a running mate who is "not just MAGA-sympatico but a true populist economic nationalist cut from the same cloth."

He wrote that, alongside DeSantis, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would also be a good vice presidential candidate.

However, Navarro also spent many words elaborating on who shouldn't be running with Trump, slamming former Vice President Mike Pence, calling him an "et tu Brute RINO." He also eliminated from his list Haley, who he described as "ever-dangerous," and Cruz, who he called a "good 'conservative' in the narrow sense but simply does not have MAGA in his DNA."

Navarro also ruled out Sen. Josh Hawley and Tom Cotton, saying Cotton lacked "the charisma and charm to campaign effectively as a vice president."

The former Trump aide added that the prospect of DeSantis agreeing to be Trump's running mate before the primary would "likely clear the entire Republican field," and make the two men "unstoppable."

"DeSantis should see the wisdom of accepting such an offer from Trump as it would similarly clear the field for DeSantis in 2028 and usher in what would likely be the beginning of an eight-year run of DeSantis as president through 2036," Navarro wrote.

"Memo to Ron: patience is as patience does. Memo to the boss: lead with intelligence and not your chin on this one," he added. "A Trump-DeSantis ticket would indeed be a juggernaut."

Representatives for Cruz, Cotton, Desantis, Haley, Hawley, Pompeo, Pence, and Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider.

Neither Trump nor DeSantis has officially declared if they will run in 2024. There has been speculation that Trump is looking at announcing his 2024 run early in a bid to stave off the wave of criticism against him in the wake of damning testimonies from witnesses called upon by the House panel investigating the Capitol riot.

Since 2021, Trump has teased a presidential run multiple times. In January, a video emerged that showed Trump calling himself the "45th and 47th president."

In October, DeSantis said he wouldn't consider a presidential run because he was busy "trying to make sure people are not supporting critical race theory — though there are indications that he has presidential ambitions.