Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.

In today’s edition, we dive into Donald Trump’s vice presidential selection process, which is off to a quiet start. Plus, chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell recaps her Middle East trip with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

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Inside Trump’s ‘quiet’ VP search

By Dasha Burns, Henry J. Gomez, Vaughn Hillyard and Jonathan Allen

It’s been nearly two months since he sewed up the Republican nomination, but Donald Trump appears to be in no hurry to name a running mate — someone who could keep a steady presence on the campaign trail while he spends much of his time in a courtroom.

The process: Trump’s team has yet to move past the early stages of vetting vice presidential prospects, seven sources familiar with the process said. Top contenders have not received detailed questionnaires or other requests for information to help finalize a shortlist, though there are signs that they are being evaluated for their fundraising prowess. 

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Outside of a May 15 event planned with Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, Trump is not yet auditioning potential picks one by one like he did in 2016 in the weeks before he chose Mike Pence. Many of the VP hopefuls will join Trump this weekend in Palm Beach, Florida, for a fundraising retreat that could serve as a screening session.

Even so, it’s “going to be quiet for a while,” a Trump adviser said when asked about the search.

A source familiar with the vetting said that while the Trump team has yet to directly engage with prospects about the possibility of joining the ticket, the campaign has done initial deep dives on them. 

The contenders: Those whom Trump or others wired into the process have acknowledged are under consideration include Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, Tim Scott of South Carolina and Vance; Govs. Doug Burgum of North Dakota and Kristi Noem of South Dakota; Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida and Elise Stefanik of New York; and Ben Carson, the Trump administration’s housing secretary. All but Carson are listed as “special guests” at this weekend’s retreat.

The timing: As ever, Trump’s unpredictability is the wild card, both for the timing of an announcement and for what candidates could be added to or subtracted from the mix. Trump said in an interview with WITI-TV of Milwaukee that he would make his VP pick “probably not too much before” the Republican National Convention, scheduled for July 15-18. 

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Trump trial, Day 11: Hope Hicks takes the stand

By Adam Reiss, Jillian Frankel, Dareh Gregorian and Lisa Rubin

Former White House communications director Hope Hicks took the stand in Trump’s New York criminal trial, a tense reunion for the former president and a woman who was once one of his closest aides.

“I’m really nervous,” Hicks said as she took the stand as the ninth witness to be called in the case, before leading the jury through a dramatic inside account of Trump’s reaction to the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape that nearly derailed his first presidential bid. 

She later broke down in tears at the start of her cross-examination by Trump attorney Emil Bove, when he asked about the Trump family having given her an opportunity to work at their company, leading to a short recess while she composed herself.

Hicks started work at the Trump Organization in 2014 before going to work on Trump’s 2016 campaign and then his administration. Another witness, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, had said she was in and out of a key meeting he had with Trump and his then-lawyer Michael Cohen in 2015, where Pecker agreed to help them suppress stories that could hurt Trump’s campaign.

Hicks said Friday she has not spoken to Trump in almost two years.

Read more from the Trump trial here →

Israel-Hamas war negotiations plagued by wishful thinking

By Andrea Mitchell

NBC News chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell files this dispatch after traveling with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the Middle East:

Returning to the U.S. from Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s most recent Middle East shuttle to find America’s campuses erupting over the very conflict he was there to mediate is stunning. 

It’s mind-bending to see the region’s age-old antagonisms being fought over by proxy, although at safe remove, by a new generation here in the U.S. There are parallels. As Blinken discovered during three endless days and nights, all the players are trapped in their own narratives.  

The Arab leaders meeting in Riyadh’s plush hotels envision a post-war Gaza, led by young Palestinian reformers financed and secured by wealthy Gulf states. Many Israelis — traumatized and divided in the aftermath of Oct. 7 — imagine a post-Benjamin Netanyahu homeland, guaranteed peace by Saudi recognition and a mutual defense pact against Iran.  

Conversations in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel suggest a very different reality. There are political rivalries among the Arab leaders. Promises made to Blinken when he was visiting in January of deep-pocketed Gulf nations rebuilding Gaza are proving illusory. Now, the Arabs want the IMF and World Bank to pick up the tab.  

At the same time, an Israeli cease-fire offer that Netanyahu hoped was too good for Hamas to refuse has still not been accepted by Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the massacre that Israeli intelligence had believed was just “aspirational,” too ambitious for Palestinian terrorists to pull off. 

Caught in the middle is the U.S., with its diplomats increasingly frustrated by the Israeli prime minister’s threats to attack Rafah at the very moment a cease-fire seems to be within their grasp.  

All this as the U.S. is gripped by a generational divide over a distant war that Middle East leaders believe could become even bloodier if this moment is lost and the current talks fail.

That’s all from The Politics Desk for now. If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com

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