Trump’s ugly message to his former VP after Pence drops out of race

There’s been a lot of bad blood between Donald Trump and Mike Pence ever since the former president’s supporters threatened to hang Pence during the January 6th Capitol Attack. But Trump’s latest comments show he definitely doesn't have any remorse. 

Pence was among several of the leading Republican candidates in the race for the 2024 presidential nomination from the party but the former vice president never really got to a place where he was a serious contender for the nomination. 

The former vice president was polling at a high 9.3% average of the vote in July 2022, long before he entered the race according to RealClearPolitics. But after entering in June 2023, Pence would struggle, his number would slide, and he dropped out of the race on October 28th. 

“It’s become clear to me: This is not my time,” Pence explained from the stage at the annual Republican Jewish Coalition gathering in Las Vegas. “So after much prayer and deliberation, I have decided to suspend my campaign for president effective today.”

“We always knew this would be an uphill battle, but I have no regrets,” Pence went on to tell the audience, which seemed surprised by the former vice president’s announcement and gave him a standing ovation after giving his remarks the Associated Press reported. 

News of Pence’s departure from the GOP presidential nomination race didn’t garner the same reaction from Trump, who commented on the announcement at a campaign event after in the day, doling out a few choice words for his former number-two now that he had left the race. 

"Everybody that leaves seems to be endorsing me,” Trump explained at his rally to jeers of some in the audience. “You know people are leaving now, and they're all endorsing me,” he continued. 

“I don't know about Mike Pence; he should endorse me,” The former president said after his initial remark. “He should endorse me, you know why? Because I had a great successful presidency, and he was the vice president. He should endorse me."

Trump then went on to complain that he was the one who chose Pence and made him the vice president, adding: “People in politics can be very disloyal,” in a thinly veiled reference to his former vice president. 

How and why Pence’s campaign failed to take off is a complicated question to answer since someone with his political credentials had all the makings of a great presidential contender. Pence was a former congressman, governor, and vice president. 

​​"I'm leaving this campaign, but let me promise you, I will never leave the fight for conservative values and I will never stop fighting to elect principled Republican leaders to every office in the land,” Pence said according to The Hill. 

Pence had spent years defending the former president but Trump’s actions on January 6th seemed to have deeply affected Pence. Unfortunately, Pence didn’t spend much of his time criticizing Trump beyond continually stating he should not be president again. 

When Pence launched his presidential campaign he explained that the former president should be disqualified from running again according to BBC News. “President Trump also demanded that I choose between him and the constitution… I chose the constitution and I always will."

"I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the constitution should never be president of the United States," Pence added."And anyone who asked someone else to put them over the constitution should never be president of the United States again."

Pointing out that Trump attempted to put himself above the Constitution became a major theme of Pence’s campaign, and it also earned him a lot of criticism from Trump while the two were battling it out for the Republican nomination. 

When Trump was indicted over charges alleging he conspired against the United States when he attempted to overturn the 2020 election, Pence was quick to point out that the indictment served as an important reminder of why Trump shouldn’t be president. 

In response, the former president berated Pence and told his followers on Truth Social that the former vice president had “gone to the Dark Side” in a set of bizarre messages that revealed the type of criticism Pence faced from Trump throughout the campaign. 

“WOW, it’s finally happened!” Trump wrote. “Liddle’ Mike Pence, a man who was about to be ousted as Governor Indiana until I came along and made him V.P., has gone to the Dark Side,” the former president continued. 

“I never told a newly embolded … Pence to put me above the Constitution, or that Mike was ‘too honest.’ He’s delusional, and now he wants to show he’s a tough guy,” Trump added.