Trump’s VP decision: One pirate or two?

Newt Gingrich may have said it best.

“I told [Donald Trump] quite directly that I thought he had a choice between having two pirates on the ticket, or having a pirate and a relatively stable, more normal person,” Gingrich said Thursday on Facebook Live.

If reports are correct, Trump is leaning toward Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a low-decibel social conservative, as his running mate — although, as of Thursday afternoon, Trump aides said the choice wasn’t final.

Pence would be — for Trump — a surprisingly conventional choice. It would mean he has decided that one pirate is enough.

Pence, who supported Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the Indiana primary, can serve as a link to GOP conservatives who don’t yet trust their presumptive nominee. He’s served as a governor and a member of Congress, providing a dash of the government experience Trump lacks.

More important, Pence’s style — bland, colorless, “normal” to a fault — makes him a counterweight to Trump’s shoot-from-the-hip braggadocio.

But there’s far more separating the two men than personal style. On substantive policy grounds, the choice seems jarring — if anyone were paying attention to such things.

Trump won support for the nomination, in part, by calling for a ban on Muslim immigrants to the United States. Pence called that position “offensive and unconstitutional.”

Trump has denounced the North America Free Trade Agreement and the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership as job killers. Pence has consistently championed those deals.

Trump has said Hillary Clinton’s 2002 vote in favor of the Iraq war was evidence of colossally bad judgment. Guess who else voted in favor of the war? Mike Pence.

But vice presidential nominees have often swallowed their pride and abandoned previous positions when the No. 2 spot was offered. Pence won’t be an effective spokesman for the anti-TPP position, but that’s not why Trump would choose him.

Instead, it will be because Trump decided to follow the most basic rule of vice presidential nominations: First, do no harm.

“The choice here is whether you want to stir things up, in which case you choose Newt, or calm things down, in which case you choose Pence,” a GOP strategist told me.

Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, reportedly lobbied in favor of Pence. His view, apparently, is that two pirates would be twice as scary to skittish voters as one.

The argument for Gingrich, on the other hand, is that Trump’s whole purpose is to shake things up. That’s not going to change, so why not double down?

So here’s the most intriguing question:

Will choosing the “conventional” candidate, Pence, mean we’re seeing the rollout of a New Trump — one who’s more cautious, more scripted and more conventional in his positions?

Don’t bet on it. The pirate king will still be in charge. He will merely have decided, for strategic reasons, that one pirate was enough.

doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com

Twitter: @DoyleMcManus