Most of the former Republican presidential candidates did something predictable upon ending their candidacies: They endorsed Donald Trump. There are exceptions — former Ambassador Nikki Haley has not yet spoken up — but Sen. Tim Scott, Gov. Ron DeSantis, Gov. Doug Burgum, Vivek Ramaswamy each wasted little time throwing their support behind the former president.
After the former president no longer had any intraparty rivals, other former Trump skeptics, including Gov. Chris Sununu, Sen. Mitch McConnell, Sen. John Thune, and Gov. Brian Kemp, did the same thing.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, however, left people guessing about his intentions — until this afternoon.
“It should come as no surprise,” the Indiana Republican said on Fox News, “that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year.”
Well, it comes as some surprise.
“Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years," he added, "and that’s why I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign.”
Almost immediately after Pence ended his own 2024 candidacy, Trump declared at a campaign event, “[Pence] should endorse me. You know why? Because I had a great, successful presidency and he was the vice president.” The former president added that he might not get such an endorsement, however, because “[p]eople in politics can be very disloyal.”
To the extent that reality still has any meaning, Pence’s loyalties to Trump were practically limitless. I’m often reminded of a June 2018 gathering at FEMA headquarters, where Trump sat at the head of the table, took a water bottle, and moved it to the floor. Moments later, his vice president mirrored the move, putting his water bottle on the floor, too.
It was emblematic of a larger truth: For four years, Pence was obsequious to the point of embarrassment. He enabled Trump. He covered for Trump. He went along with outlandish Trump expectations — at one point even staying at a Trump-owned property in Ireland, literally on the other side of the country from Dublin, where he had official meetings.
But it wasn’t enough. For Trump, nothing ever is.
Indifferent to Pence’s years of loyalty, Trump put his former vice president in danger on Jan. 6, defended rioters’ “hang Mike Pence” chants, blamed Pence for the violence at the Capitol, and taunted his former vice president as a “delusional” coward and bad person.
It’s against this backdrop that Pence, joining an amazing number of former members of Trump’s cabinet, concluded that he simply cannot support his party’s presumptive nominee.
The practical implications are limited — it’s not as if much of the GOP base still looks to the Hoosier for electoral guidance — but the symbolic significance is extraordinary: Trump is so dangerous that his own former vice president and former handpicked governing partner won’t endorse his candidacy.
The former president’s tantrum is likely to be fierce, but if he wanted Pence’s backing, he probably should’ve tried to earn it.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.