In the weeks after the 2018 midterms, Trump asked aides about replacing Pence on the ticket, and he asked again for their thoughts on Pence during his August vacation at his golf course in Bedminster, N.J., writes tomlobianco
WASHINGTON — When Vice President Mike Pence flew to Europe as the stand-in for President Trump at the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II, it appeared to be another sign that the famously fickle president trusted his vice president.
Current and former Trump and Pence advisers interviewed for this story, as well as my forthcoming biography of Pence, “Piety & Power: Mike Pence and the Taking of the White House,” consistently described a personal relationship between Trump and Pence that is warm but somewhat aloof. Pence has a lane that he sticks to in the White House — conservative social policy — but he is not considered to be as influential as people like Jared Kushner or Stephen Miller.
And one Pence adviser noted that Trump has repeatedly told the vice president that he has nothing to worry about, and that stories of him possibly being removed from the ticket are “fake news.”“The perception is that Pence’s team is difficult to work with,” one Trump adviser said. “Mike Pence is an exemplary vice president and has played a valuable role in the administration. He will also be a key asset as President Trump’s running mate in 2020,” Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said in a statement to Yahoo News. “At the staff level, everyone works together as one seamless team with a singular focus: the reelection of President Trump and Vice President Pence in November 2020.”As he returned from vacation, Trump beat back the idea.
Haley inflamed those tensions two weeks ago when she tweeted her insistence that she would never replace Pence on the ticket and fully supported Pence and Trump. And even though Pence’s advisers are fairly sure the vice president will make it onto the Trump ticket in 2020, they aren’t 100 percent certain — which has led some Pence advisers and friends to chafe at Trump’s treatment of the vice president.
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