Even though only a handful of US states have held Republican Party primaries to choose the party’s presidential candidate for the November election, Donald Trump has assumed the nomination is his by announcing Vladimir Putin as his vice-presidential running mate.

In a top secret operation Putin was flown on a Trump Organisation jet from Moscow to the  Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for today’s announcement (main picture) which began just before news broke of the death in an Arctic Circle prison of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

“I want to welcome Vladimir to the winning ticket in this year’s election,” Mr Trump said to wild applause from an invited audience of his supporters at a rally in the Mar-a-Lago grounds.

“Vladimir will make a perfect Vice-President. Oh yeah. So perfect. He’s the best pick possible. Right?” he said as the crowd erupted into chants of “USA! USA! USA!”

In a rambling two-hour speech Trump said he had been weighing up potential running mates for several months.

“I looked around and considered several people and in the end Vladimir was the obvious and only choice,” he said.

“He’s been draining the swamp in Moscow and I want him to help me finish the same job in Washington.

“Vladimir is the guy I should have picked back in 2016, rather than the late Mike Pence,” Trump said.

“Oh, wait. Mike Pence is not dead,” he continued in a mock theatrical tone before adding “Yet!” while winking at Putin who winked back and gave a thumb’s up sign as the crowd broke into a chant of “Kill Pence!”.

Trump rejected suggestions from reporters that Putin did not qualify as a vice-presidential candidate because he was not a natural-born US citizen nor had he been a US resident for at least 14 years as required by the American Constitution.

“That’s just fake news, yet again. Soooo fake, so very, very fake news,” he said. “The Constitution doesn’t say that. No, not at all. I’ve asked Rudy Giuliani and he says Vladimir is totally good to go.”

When asked about Navalny’s death, a visibly angry Putin lashed out at western leaders who have claimed he was responsible.

He refused to answer the question but referred reporters to his official statement issued by the Kremlin.

“I know that jail has at least one tall building with a third-storey window so there’s every chance Navalny has committed suicide,” Putin’s statement issued last Wednesday said.

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