WASHINGTON, D.C. — Following former President Donald Trump’s comments on Fox News Tuesday that Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds is one of the names he’s considering for a potential running mate, Donalds took to the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference just outside of Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

What You Need To Know

  •  On Fox News Tuesday former President Donald Trump confirmed Rep. Byron Donalds was on his VP shortlist

  •  Donalds delivered a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland Thursday

  • Following his speech, Donalds called being on Trump's list "cool" and "surreal"  

Following his speech, Spectrum News caught up with Donalds in the hallway. “Man, it’s cool. It’s kinda surreal. But, you know what, you just work hard, do your job, don’t worry about much else,” he told us about being on Trump’s so-called ‘shortlist.’

Donalds’ name was thrown in along with Gov. Ron DeDantis, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, and Vivek Ramaswamy. 

Donalds’ CPAC address largely focused on border security, but he closed out by rallying support for Trump.

“We have to have leadership that has a bold vision of what we should do and not be afraid of polls, of what people think we might need to do. We’ve got to have leadership that’s going to say tough things when we need to hear them, and we have that leadership this November in Donald J. Trump,” Donalds said. 

Political experts say it’s unlikely that if Trump wins the GOP nomination, he will choose a running mate from his home state of Florida.

“Constitutionally, if Trump is a resident of Florida, you can’t have a VP candidate be from the same state, they can’t hold the same, those two positions at once, it has to be from a different state,” said George Washington University Professor Casey Burgat. 

Trump is scheduled to deliver CPAC’s keynote speech on Saturday.