The man who would replace Donald Trump

A “howl of such anguish that it cracked mirrors and sent small forest animals scurrying for cover” rang out from the residence of the vice president the other day, said Frank Bruni in The New York Times. “Mike Pence was furious. He was offended.” Why? Because a press article had dared to suggest that he was positioning himself to run for president, should his boss fall by the wayside. Pence’s “operatic outrage” showed just how close to the bone the story was. It described how, while remaining assiduously loyal to Trump in public, Pence has been busily networking behind the scenes and building an independent power base. He has formed his own political fundraising committee, the only sitting vice president ever to do so. And last month he installed Nick Ayers, “a sharpelbowed political operative”, as his chief of staff – a position traditionally occupied by a veteran bureaucrat.

“This is treacherous ground for any vice president,” said Ryan Lizza in The New Yorker. During Bill Clinton’s impeachment, Al Gore was careful to avoid doing anything that might suggest he was angling to replace his boss. Even in private, he was steadfast in his support, rarely venting his “deep reservations” about Clinton’s personal conduct for fear of aiding the Republicans. Pence should feel no such compunctions about harming his boss’s prospects, said Susan Hennessey in Foreign Policy. The reality is that Trump is “completely out of control”, and Pence – the only member of the executive whom Trump can’t fire, owing to the fact he, like the president, was elected by the people – needs to be ready to step in. He could learn from Gerald Ford, who became president with the resignation of his boss Richard Nixon, from whom he had successfully distanced himself. When Ford took office, he addressed the nation, saying: “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men.” Pence might want to jot down that line.

But would Pence be an improvement on Trump? Not in my book, said Richard Cohen in The Washington Post. Sure, Trump is a “menace”, but he is at least incompetent, which stops him realising most of his plans. Pence, by contrast, is “predictable, steadfast and experienced”, which raises the worrying prospect that he might actually succeed in advancing his very socially conservative, anti-abortion agenda. He is also “shockingly hypocritical”. He claims to be “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order”, yet he has happily enabled Trump, never taking him to task for his cruel comments about Mexicans, Muslims or the disabled. “Pence professes loyalty to Trump, but when it comes to principles, he’s not even loyal to himself.”