It sure looks like Kari Lake’s long shot dream of being Trump’s running mate is officially dead

Kari Lake has been vying to be Donald Trump‘s VP pick for over a year, reportedly going so far as to move into a suite at Mar-a-Lago so she could be closer to the 77-year-old demagogue. But it now appears all her hard work may have been for naught.

Fresh off his victory in Iowa last night, the one-term, twice-impeached, quadruply-indicted ex-president took to the stage and basically said his #1 fangirl won’t be his #2 on the 2024 presidential ticket, should he win his party’s nomination.

“She’s terrific,” Trump said yesterday after he was declared the winner in the Iowa caucus. “She’ll be a senator, a great senator, I predict, right? You’re going to be a great senator.”

How about we take this to the next level?

Subscribe to our daily newsletter for a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.

Lake, who campaigned heavily for Trump in the Hawkeye State over the last several weeks, is currently running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Arizona and is largely considered the frontrunner in her primary.

She responded to Trump’s shout out last night with a tweet thanking him for his vote of confidence.

“Thank you for the shout out, President Trump!” she wrote. “I can’t wait to help pass your incredible America First agenda in the United States Senate.”

Many have interpreted Trump calling Lake a “great senator, I predict” to be an indication that she’s officially off his list of potential VP picks.

But while she is the frontrunner for her party’s nomination for U.S. Senate, most polls show her losing to her likely Democratic Party opponent, pro-LGBTQ+ State Rep. Ruben Gallego, who is also outraising her like crazy.

Last quarter, the drag-hating MAGA queen reported a fundraising haul of $2.1 million. Gallego, however, raked in over $1 million more than that. He brought in a cool $3.3 million, expanding his campaign warchest to an impressive $6.5 million.

In addition to having an uphill climb ahead of her in the general election, Lake is currently ensnared in a defamation lawsuit filed against her by one of Maricopa County’s top elections officials who she falsely accused of tampering with the 2022 election results.

Stephen Richer, a Republican, is suing Lake for repeatedly saying he “sabotaged” electronic ballot printers and inserted 300,000 fake ballots into the Maricopa County ballot count, thus costing her the governorship.

Lake has tried to get the defamation lawsuit against her dismissed twice but has failed both times.

Last month, a judge has ruled her claims about Richer could be proved false to a jury and ordered the case to go to trial. Earlier this month, her lawyers asked the Arizona Court of Appeals to intervene and dismiss the suit.

But considering she’s lost virtually every lawsuit and appeal surrounding the 2022 gubernatorial election so far, we’re guessing this one won’t be any different.

With Lake almost certainly out of the running for the veepstakes, all eyes are now firmly fixed on Kristi Noem, who, like Lake, has been positioning herself to be Trump’s #2 for some time.

Speaking to Newsmax last fall, South Dakota’s gay-hating governor said she’d take the gig “in a heartbeat.”

“Trump needs a strong partner,” she said. “He’s gonna need somebody who knows what it’s like to run a business … also to have a wife, mom, and grandmother isn’t bad either.”

Last night, almost immediately after he was declared in the winner in Iowa, Noem took to Twitter X to congratulate him.

“Iowa spoke loud and clear. @realdonaldtrump has won overwhelmingly tonight. He got more votes than all the other candidates COMBINED,” she wrote.

“It’s time to unite the Republican party. We need to put all our time, treasure, and talents into defeating Joe Biden and taking our country back – NOT figuring out who is in 2nd place. Congratulations, Mr. President.”