Kristi Noem pumps up vice pres­i­den­tial rumors with answer to point­ed pol­i­cy ques­tion

Gov. Kristi Noem (R‑SD) fueled vice pres­i­den­tial rumors after avoid­ing a direct answer to a point­ed ques­tion crit­i­cal of for­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump.
At a House Agri­cul­ture Com­mit­tee meet­ing on the threat of Chi­na to Amer­i­can agri­cul­ture, Noem was asked about the pos­si­ble effects of new tar­iffs float­ed by Trump.

Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial can­di­date and for­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump, left, embraces South Dako­ta Gov. Kristi Noem at a cam­paign ral­ly Sat­ur­day, March 16, 2024, in Van­dalia, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)

“I think that that is a pro­pos­al that peo­ple are still look­ing at and hav­ing con­ver­sa­tions about,” she answered.
Rep. David Scott (D‑GA) pushed Noem on the pro­pos­al, ask­ing if farm­ers in her state were pre­pared for the finan­cial con­se­quences of the move, Politi­co report­ed.
“And that is a great con­ver­sa­tion for you to con­tin­ue to have as well with the Repub­li­can mem­bers here as well to weigh in, to make sure we get the best pol­i­cy in place,” she answered. “Because pol­i­cy is what mat­ters and the debate and the dis­cus­sion is incred­i­bly impor­tant.”
Noem’s eva­sive answer reflects her stand­ing in the vice pres­i­den­tial sweep­stakes — she has been float­ed as a top can­di­date to be Trump’s run­ning mate for months. She appeared along­side Trump at a recent ral­ly, fur­ther fuel­ing spec­u­la­tion.
Noem open­ly crit­i­cized Trump for his trade pol­i­cy while he was still in office, say­ing that it was hurt­ing farm­ers in her state. Her silence on the issue now hints at her cau­tion to not offend the for­mer pres­i­dent and risk her spot as poten­tial run­ning mate.
In August, Trump announced his plans for a uni­ver­sal tar­iff on for­eign goods, con­tin­u­ing his pref­er­ence for tar­iffs from his first term.
“To achieve this goal, we will phase in a sys­tem of uni­ver­sal, base­line tar­iffs on most for­eign prod­ucts,” Trump said in a video announc­ing the plan. “On top of this, high­er tar­iffs will increase incre­men­tal­ly depend­ing on how much indi­vid­ual for­eign coun­tries deval­ue their cur­ren­cy. They deval­ue their cur­ren­cy to take advan­tage of the Unit­ed States, and they sub­si­dize their indus­tries or oth­er­wise engage in trade cheat­ing and abuse. And they do it now like nev­er before, and we had it large­ly stopped, and …