Trump is trying to turn the Republican race into a vice-presidential casting call

Donald J. Trump has won just one nominating contest, but his potential running mates already outnumber his presidential rivals on the campaign trail.

As he pursues a victory over Nikki Haley in New Hampshire that would send him on a glide path to the nomination, Mr. Trump appears to be holding casting calls for potential vice presidential candidates on stage at his rallies and other events.

His goals are clear: to show off the sheer size of his institutional support in the Republican Party. Add a sense of inevitability to the race. And of course, see which subordinate will move him the most.

On Friday alone, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio and Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York rallied supporters for him. Ms. Stefanik held a second event on Saturday.

The presence of all three, each of whom maintains a close relationship with Mr. Trump, generated headlines and inflamed his base.

But joining Trump's ticket could come with risks. Former Vice President Mike Pence ran with Mr Trump twice, but his refusal to violate the Constitution to help overturn the 2020 election led Trump supporters to storm the Capitol and threaten to hang him. Mr. Pence and his family were forced to hide in the Capitol to avoid the mob.

Scott's shares appeared to rise along with Trump after his endorsement of the former president Friday, a move that showed the genius senator's loyalty and surprising capacity for ruthlessness. In choosing Mr. Trump, Mr. Scott has delivered a brutal snub to Ms. Haley, his compatriot from his home state and the woman who appointed him to the Senate.

Mr. Scott's comments at the Trump rally Friday in Concord projected an electrifying energy that was often missing from his own presidential bid, which he ended in November.

The crowd matched its excitement with shouts of “VP,” and Mr. Scott ended his fiery call-and-response speech by shouting along with the audience, “We need Donald Trump.”

Mr. Trump noted Mr. Scott's transformation.

“He was great, wasn't he?” Trump said this after the meeting to a Republican adviser, who insisted on anonymity to describe the private conversation.

Mr. Trump's enthusiasm was a marked change from a year ago, when, after a lackluster debate performance by Mr. Scott, the former president raised eyebrows among some aides with offhand remarks that the South Carolinian had not received much attention.

Ms. Stefanik also seemed an increasingly decent choice to be Trump's running mate, winning praise across the conservative world for her role in bringing down two presidents of elite universities after a contentious hearing on anti-Semitism and campus protests.

At his rally on Friday, Mr. Trump praised Ms. Stefanik, a former backbencher who rose to the House of Representatives' No. 4 leadership position.

“Elise became very famous,” he said of her exhortations of college presidents, describing her interrogation as surgical. “Wasn't it beautiful?”

One potential problem with a Stefanik choice: Trump mispronounced her last name as “STEH-fuh-nick” instead of “steh-FAH-nick.”

On Saturday, Trump supporters also greeted Ms. Stefanik with “VP” chants as she visited the former president's campaign office in Manchester with volunteers.

“I would be honored — I have been saying this for a year — to serve in any capacity in a future Trump administration,” she told reporters.

At the Saddle Up Saloon in Kingston, N.H., Mr. Vance mingled with dozens of Trump supporters as reporters asked about his prospects for joining the presidential ticket.

Mr. Vance, the bestselling author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” suggested he would be better served in the Senate during a second Trump term than as vice president. Still, Mr. Vance said he would have to consider such an offer.

“I want to help him any way I can,” he said.

Mr. Trump was concerned about his choice for vice president in 2016, switching possible choices until almost the moment of the announcement.

But during this campaign, Trump teased his vice presidential pick before the first nominating contest last week in Iowa, where he said on Fox News that he had chosen a running mate but declined to offer a name. Still, a formal announcement could remain far off: Several people close to Mr. Trump have privately suggested that his comment was more showmanship than seriousness.

In Iowa, Mr. Trump also recruited a series of potential running mates to campaign for him: Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia; Kari Lake, a Republican Senate candidate in Arizona; and Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota.

But the VP chants have gotten much louder in New Hampshire.

At an event in Atkinson on Tuesday, Vivek Ramaswamy passionately defended Mr Trump – less than a day after he ended his own bid for the White House, most of which he spent glorifying the former president.

When the crowd shouted “VP! VP!” for Mr. Ramaswamy, an Ohio entrepreneur, Mr. Trump returned the endorsement.

The former president said Mr. Ramaswamy “will work with us for a long time.”

Ms. Haley, who served in the Trump administration as ambassador to the United Nations, has long been mentioned as a potential running mate.

But during Friday's speech in Concord, Mr. Trump appeared to rule out that possibility.

“She's not presidential wood,” he said. “If I say that, it probably means she won't be elected vice president.”

Neil Viddor contributed reporting from Kingston, NH