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Once Donald Trump no longer had any intraparty rivals for the 2024 nomination, a variety of the former president’s Republican skeptics did exactly what they were expected to do: They fell in line out of a sense of party loyalty.
To be sure, GOP officials such as New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Whip John Thune, and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp didn’t seem overly pleased about throwing their support behind Trump, but they’re partisans; it’s an election year; and if Republican primary voters and caucus goers rallied behind the former president, they didn’t feel as if they had much of a choice.
But former Vice President Mike Pence reminded them late last week that Republicans do, in fact, have a choice. “Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years,” the Hoosier told Fox News on Friday, “and that’s why I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign.”
There’s no shortage of relevant angles to these developments, some of which we kicked around late last week, but looking ahead, what arguably matters most in a story like this is the broader scope: When it comes to prominent former members of Trump’s team, Pence has all kinds of company. I’m reminded of this Washington Post report from the fall:
No president has ever attracted more public detractors who were formerly in his inner circle. They are closely watching his rise — cruising in the GOP nomination contest and, in most polls, tying or even leading President Biden in a general election matchup — with alarm. Among them are his former vice president, top military advisers, lawyers, some members of his Cabinet, economic advisers, press officials and campaign aides, some of whom are working for other candidates.
It’s been a challenge to keep up with just how many former top officials from Trump’s team have either denounced him, announced they won’t support his 2024 candidacy, or both.
Pence, Trump’s right-hand man for four years, should probably be seen at the top of this list, but what’s striking is the fact that such a list even exists. It includes several former members of the White House Cabinet, and it grows much longer if we include other officials who worked with Trump just below the Cabinet level.
What’s more, many of these officials have been unreserved in their condemnations of Trump. Former White House chief of staff John Kelly can barely contain his visceral contempt for the former president; former Defense Secretary Mark Esper believes Trump is a “threat to democracy“; and former White House national security adviser John Bolton has said Trump is “unfit” for office.
These officials — Republicans, all — aren’t just random observers. We’re talking about officials whom Trump tapped for incredibly powerful positions. They worked side by side with the GOP’s presumptive nominee, giving them front-row seats on how Trump thinks, listens, processes information, evaluates evidence, and makes decisions.
And they don’t want the former president to return to office.
History offers plenty of examples of presidents who’ve clashed with one aide or another, but we’ve never seen anything like this.
Indeed, one of the things that makes the 2024 race unique is an unprecedented dynamic: The Republican candidate’s opponents and many of the Republican candidate’s former aides are saying the exact same things.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.