As former President Donald Trump prepares to announce his running mate before this month’s GOP convention, some of the party’s leading pro-Israel donors are weighing in to voice their approval of North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who is a finalist on the vice presidential shortlist.

Burgum, a traditional conservative who briefly ran for president last year before dropping out and endorsing Trump, is not a household name to national audiences. But the wealthy former Microsoft executive has in recent months emerged as a top pick for vice president — and an attractive choice for some erstwhile Nikki Haley champions who have raised concerns about another leading contender, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), over his America First foreign policy views.

In contrast with Vance, one of the most outspoken opponents of aiding Ukraine in the Senate, Burgum — who has expressed support for continued military funding to Ukraine — is embracing a more hawkish foreign policy approach that has drawn admiration from establishment conservatives and major donors in the pro-Israel community.

Fred Zeidman, a top GOP donor who had backed Haley for president, said he was impressed with Burgum’s address at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership summit in Las Vegas shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, when he met privately with the governor for an hour-long conversation that touched on Middle East policy. 

“The thing that always stands out to me is his support of Israel — not only what he had to say about it in his speech, but also back in private conversation,” Zeidman said in an interview with Jewish Insider on Monday. “He understands it, and for that reason I don’t question his support under any circumstance.”

The North Dakota governor, 67, has frequently raised Middle East policy issues while campaigning for Trump in recent months, alleging that President Joe Biden has emboldened Iran and accusing Biden of “negotiating for the terrorists” after he said the U.S. would withhold weapons shipments to Israel if it went forward with an invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, a Hamas stronghold.

Eric Levine, a leading GOP donor and RJC board member who supported Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) for president, said he strongly favored Burgum over Vance, citing what he described as the governor’s “Reagan-type worldview of peace through strength” and “unique perspective” on domestic energy as “an important part of American foreign policy.”

Even as Vance has recently sought to reassure critics that he remains pro-Israel, Levine expressed skepticism that the Ohio senator’s isolationist views were compatible with support for the Jewish state.

“You cannot be pro-Israel and be an isolationist,” Levine insisted to JI on Tuesday. “Those two things cannot coexist.”

Barry Funt, a GOP donor who also sits on the RJC board, echoed that view, even as he voiced a more measured assessment of Vance. “As a supporter of Israel, I am very wary of the isolationist wing of the Republican Party,” he said in an interview with JI on Tuesday, before adding a caveat to differentiate between what he called a more “worrisome” type of isolationism and an “America First foreign policy” that “can be supportive of Israel.”

“I think ultimately, with Vance, in fairness, it is too early to know where he sits on the fence,” Funt said. 

Speaking more broadly, Funt said he would prefer Burgum as a running mate because he believes the governor will help Trump “expand the base” in the lead-up to the November election, while cautioning that Vance would be “labeled as a MAGA” diehard who won’t appeal to swing voters. “I was impressed with Burgum during the debates,” he elaborated. “I thought he was the most intelligent and articulate on the issues.”

The RJC, which has endorsed Trump, indicated that it will not be weighing in on the Trump veepstakes. “We are confident that all of the names that are being discussed for vice president are all pro-Israel voices who will work alongside President Trump, who was and will be again, the most pro-Israel President in U.S. history,” Sam Markstein, the RJC’s national political director, said in a text message to JI on Tuesday.

Despite his America First worldview, Vance counts a number of defenders in the pro-Israel community who tout his backing of Israel in the Senate, and say he is able to separate his views on the Middle East from his general aversion to American engagement abroad.

“I disagree with Senator Vance about Ukraine too, but it does not make sense to equate his views on Ukraine with an unwillingness to support Israel,” Yuval Levin, the editor of National Affairs and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote in an email to JI. “He has made a clear and substantive distinction between the two and has shown unwavering support for Israel in its war with Hamas from the beginning. You can accept or reject that distinction, but you can’t deny that he has been a solid friend of Israel’s.”

Roger Hertog, a prominent Jewish philanthropist who chairs the Tikvah Fund, said he has had several conversations with Vance on foreign policy in recent years, and believes the senator has demonstrated a sincere interest in understanding more about Israel and its importance as a key U.S. ally.

“If I had to answer the question, simply, ‘Am I confident of his support of the State of Israel, whether he’s importantly in the Senate or as vice president if he were chosen?’ I would say the answer is yes,” Hertog said in an interview with JI, calling Vance an “unusual and valuable” addition to the upper chamber. “He has a theory of the case and it’s persuasive.”

In May, Vance, 39, delivered an address at an event co-hosted by the isolationist Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, during which he sought to distinguish his staunch opposition to Ukraine aid from his self-avowed commitment to Israel in its war with Hamas. The senator told JI at the time that he had chosen to speak before an anti-Israel audience because the event was an “important meeting place for a lot of ideas that” he views as “very popular on the American right right now.”

For his part, Burgum has given some major foreign policy speeches over the past year, including an address to the Hudson Institute a few days after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, where he declared that “Iran’s war on Israel” is “a war on America” and excoriated the Biden administration for engaging in what he called a misguided effort to appease the Islamic republic.

Despite a lack of experience at the federal level, some observers say that Burgum, who first assumed office in 2016, has a keen understanding of national security and foreign policy issues, owing largely to his background as a business executive as well as his stewardship of a state that is deeply enmeshed with domestic energy production and which is home to a nuclear base.

In April 2023, Burgum signed legislation in North Dakota to counter the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.

“He’s strongly pro-Israel” and supportive of Trump’s “maximum-pressure campaign” on Iran, said a person familiar with Burgum’s views who spoke with JI on the condition of anonymity to discuss the governor. 

If he is chosen as a running mate, Burgum can “speak Trump’s language of understanding — whether it’s in trade policy or national security policy or energy policy — how to view a national security framework that’s working for the United States or that our adversaries are taking advantage of,” the person explained.

Rob Lockwood, a spokesperson for Burgum, declined to comment on Tuesday, citing a general policy of not weighing in on “veepstakes stories.”

Even as he had previously expressed criticism of Trump and said he would not serve as his vice president, Burgum has now positioned himself as an outspoken surrogate for the former president, appearing at campaign rallies and defending the former president in multiple media interviews. 

Trump has said he has chosen his running mate, suggesting that he will disclose his decision at or before the Republican National Conventional set to begin on July 15. 

But the search for a vice president has reportedly continued to revolve around three candidates: Burgum, Vance and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the latter of whom recently voted to oppose aid for Ukraine in a shift away from his traditionally hawkish foreign policy approach. 

The Trump campaign dismissed speculation over his choice for a running mate in a statement shared with JI on Tuesday.

“As President Trump has said himself, the top criteria in selecting a vice president is a strong leader who will make a great president for eight years after his next four-year term concludes,” said Brian Hughes, a senior Trump adviser. “But anyone telling you they know who or when President Trump will choose his VP is lying unless that person is named Donald J. Trump.”