Trump hints at revealing running mate next month: Think I'll announce who 'during the convention'

Former President Trump hinted Thursday at when he would name his 2024 vice presidential pick in the second part of a sit-down interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. 

The GOP frontrunner’s campaign took the vice presidential hunt one step further recently by sending vetting paperwork to several potential picks. 

Potential vice presidential contenders who have received paperwork are North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and JD Vance, R-Ohio, according to sources who spoke with Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier. 

Other potential contenders reported to be on Trump’s shortlist are Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Tim Scott, R-S.C., Reps. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., and Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., as well as retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.

"I think I'll announce who that person's going to be during the convention," Trump said on "Hannity." "I think that's pretty normal — during the convention, it will be an interesting period of time." 

Trump added that some potential vice presidential contenders have "done a fantastic job in communicating the ills and the assets and the advantages and the disadvantages of what we're doing as a country and where we are as a country."

"This is a very dangerous time in America. We have a very corrupt system of politics like we've never had before, and we have to strengthen our elections, and we have to strengthen our borders, and we've got to do something with our country, or we're not going to have a country left and, you know, we're talking about other countries and respect. They don't respect our president right now," he continued. "And unless our president is respected, we are in great, really grave danger." 

INSIDERS PREDICT THIS POSSIBLE TRUMP VP PICK POSES ‘EXISTENTIAL THREAT’ TO KEY AREA OF BIDEN SUPPORT

The former president is expected to appear at a sentencing hearing in New York in mid-July, four days before the start of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Trump was convicted last week of 34 counts of falsifying business records by a Manhattan jury in NY v. Trump.

The 45th president announced he was choosing then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate on Twitter during the 2016 campaign. 

Pence declined to endorse his former running mate earlier this year, saying his decision "should come as no surprise."