Trump Reportedly Offered Kasich a Very Odd Deal

Wednesday night is the night that America meets GOP VP nominee Mike Pence, but per a senior adviser to John Kasich who spoke anonymously to the New York Times, the process by which he was chosen sounds like it could have been a little wonky—and may even have involved a bizarre olive branch being offered to the Ohio governor. According to that adviser, Donald Trump Jr. contacted him with a most interesting offer for his boss: a chance for Kasich to become "the most powerful vice president in history," per the Times, by helming both domestic and foreign policy. And while a supposedly all-powerful Kasich (said to be the Trump team's "perfect choice," per the article) would be doing most of the heavy lifting, "making America great again" is what Jr. allegedly said his dad would be doing. Kasich reportedly rejected the offer at the end of May in a phone call with Trump.

Josh Voorhees writes for Slate that, as strange as this story is, it "isnt the first time someone close to Trump has suggested that the GOP nominee would effectively outsource the day-to-day" presidential tasks: In May, Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort told the Huffington Post that Trump "sees himself more as the chairman of the board than even the CEO, let alone the COO." Chris Cillizza pipes in with a similar take at the Washington Post, adding, "[Trump] has repeatedly expressed little interest or curiosity in the nuances and intricacies of policy, and he's made clear he thinks most average Americans don't care, either." Meanwhile, at the National Review, Charles Cooke compares Trump to a "too-powerful Queen who thinks that her palace is all a big joke. 'Off with their heads? What enormous fun!'" Trump tweeted out a response Wednesday afternoon to the Times story that attempts, in Trump Twitter style, to render all of this moot, retorting, "John Kasich was never asked by me to be VP. Just arrived in Cleveland—will be a great two days!" (More Donald Trump stories.)