A reader of the Wall Street Journal writes in to that newspaper, arguing, when it comes to Donald Trump’s upcoming selection of a running mate: “Don’t pick someone like Mike Pence—pick Mike Pence. This would greatly undercut the Democrats’ Jan. 6 narrative, since they portray the former vice president as the hero. It would also show the former president not to be vindictive.”
There are a lot of reasons why Donald Trump is extremely unlikely to select Mike Pence again. For starters, Trump has spent the last three years denouncing Pence in the most furious terms for not using some sort of magic wand to make Trump president for another four years. During the January 6 riot, Trump tweeted, “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.” Since then Trump has called Pence “a wimp,” “delusional,” “Liddle,” and in an unintentionally revealing statement about character, “too honest.”
Trump’s former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, told the House January 6 Select Committee that Trump “had signaled a positive view of the prospect of hanging the vice president.”
Now, call me crazy, but “I’ve changed my mind about hanging you” just doesn’t strike me as the right foundation for a good working relationship.
Meanwhile, Pence has accused Trump of “walking away, not just from keeping faith with the Constitution on that day, but also with a commitment to fiscal responsibility, a commitment to the sanctity of life, a commitment to American leadership in the world.” In March, Pence declared, “After a lot of reflection, I just concluded I cannot endorse the agenda that Donald Trump is carrying into this national debate.”
How would either man appear to their respective supporters if they suddenly announced, “Hey, never mind, I take back everything I said about this guy, we’re getting the band back together”? What is Trump going to say, “I found the right delusional wimp for the job”? Is Pence going to say, “Oh, wait, Trump walked back to faith with the Constitution and everything else”?
You can envision Trump making a shameless, unjustifiable, craven flip-flop on many topics, such as banning TikTok. But it’s really difficult to envision Trump changing his mind on Pence and whether the straightlaced former governor of Indiana should be a heartbeat away from the soon-to-be-78-year-old man’s presidency.
Elsewhere on the Wall Street Journal letters page, another reader urges consideration of former CIA director and secretary of state Mike Pompeo. “I don’t understand how a top-contender list doesn’t include Mike Pompeo, the most intelligent, loyal and productive of Mr. Trump’s cabinet. The former secretary of state would bring his congressional, political, intelligence and foreign-policy experience. He is a no-brainer.”
This is a much more plausible option than a second time around for Pence, although that’s not a high bar to clear. Pompeo indeed brings a golden résumé: first in his class at West Point, tank platoon leader, J.D. from Harvard Law School, editor of the Harvard Law Review — see, they don’t all turn out like Barack Obama! — successful businessman, three terms in the House, two years as CIA director, two years as secretary of state.
The drawback for Pompeo is that he’s a white male from the non-swing state of Kansas. (At age 60, he seems young compared to Trump, Biden, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Jill Stein, and Cornel West.) Does he help with suburbanites? Soccer moms? White-collar dads?
Pompeo makes sense if Trump thinks either (a) foreign policy and national security will be big issues in the campaign and/or (b) foreign policy and national security will be big issues in a second term of Trump. Pompeo’s the man you want living at the Naval Observatory in turbulent times.