Mike Pence throws Donald Trump under the bus
Weeks ago, a feud surfaced between Donald Trump and Mike Pence which went underreported at the time. Trump went out of his way to block a key Pence nomination for reasons that were purely petty. We advised Palmer Report readers to keep an eye on the situation in order to see if this was a one-off incident or if it was going to get worse. Now we have our answer.
Mike Pence’s camp is now leaking to CNN that it tried to warn Donald Trump’s camp about troubled Dr. Ronny Jackson last year. This changes a number of things. It paints Trump as not only irresponsibly keeping Jackson on as the White House doctor after learning of his professional misconduct, but also knowingly nominating a troubled individual to run the VA. This leak makes Trump look terrible, and it makes Pence look judicious for having tried to warn Trump about it.
That, of course, is the entire point. Mike Pence is now going out of his way to try to make himself look good at Donald Trump’s expense, and he’s not even being particularly subtle about it. This is a remarkable development. It’s not yet to the point where it would be fair to say that Trump and Pence are at war with each other, but this certainly represents a series of very public skirmishes.
It’s worth noting that the first skirmish, which saw Donald Trump trying to hurt Mike Pence, came shortly after the Michael Cohen raid raised new questions about whether Trump is going to survive any of this. Now this latest skirmish, which sees Pence trying to hurt Trump, is coming as things unravel even further for Trump. The timing here isn’t particularly difficult to figure out. As the prospect of Trump’s demise (and thus Pence’s potential ascension) becomes more concrete, the two are taking the gloves off with regard to each other.
