Will Donald Trump choose Doug Burgum as his running mate? Website fuels VP speculation

The intrigue surrounding who former President Donald Trump will pick as his running mate grew Thursday after political observers noticed that a website combining North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum's name with Trump's redirects to the former president's campaign website.

Burgum is on Trump's short list of potential nominees for vice president. He received vetting documents from the Trump campaign recently and has been active on the campaign trail, appearing with the former president at multiple events.

And speculation that Burgum could be Trump's VP pick grew when it was discovered that trumpburgum.com redirects to donaldjtrump.com, the official Trump campaign website. Newsweek first reported on the discovery by X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, users.

Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the trumpburgum.com domain was not created by the campaign.

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“This has nothing to do with our campaign," Leavitt said.

The site appears to have been purchased in September 2023, when Burgum was still running against Trump in the 2024 Republican primary. Any internet user could have purchased the domain, not necessarily someone associated with Trump or Burgum.

Burgum's political operation declined to comment on the website.

Other leading contenders for the VP spot include U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott.

The USA TODAY Network tested website domain name combinations of other VP contenders names with Trump's, and none redirected to the campaign's website.

Trump has indicated he will announce his VP pick around the time of the Republican National Convention, which kicks off in Milwaukee on July 15.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Website fuels speculation that Trump will choose Burgum as his VP pick