AP Interview: Trump down to 5 or 6 choices for VP

The headline buries the real story here. Trump indicates he’s not going to do the kind of data driven GOTV that has been normal in other recent campaigns.

Shifting swiftly to the general election, Donald Trump says he’s narrowed his list of potential running mates to “five or six” people and doesn’t want to accept taxpayer money to finance a fall campaign against likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

In a break from recent major party nominees, Trump does not plan to invest heavily in a data-driven effort to court voters in the fall campaign.

Despite pressure, the billionaire said he doesn’t believe he has an obligation to release his tax returns and won’t release them before November unless an ongoing audit of his finances is completed before Election Day. He said he wouldn’t overrule his lawyers and instruct them to release his returns if the audit hasn’t concluded by then.

“There’s nothing to learn from them,” Trump said. He also said he doesn’t believe voters are interested.

If you’re a GOPer reading that, you probably are questioning WTF. GOTV is integral to winning elections, and the data management efforts to manage those efforts is seen as critical to winning elections. That means you spend money most effectively on places where it is likely to do the most good. Looks like Trump’s going to fly by the seat of his pants.