Pence isn’t the full shilling...

FOR those hoping that impeachment might save the United States from the horrors of Trumpism, there is little comfort in the idea that his vice-president, Mike Pence, would be most likely to replace him.

One of the reasons Mr Pence, pictured, is reported to have accepted the nomination for the deputy post was that in Indiana – where he was Governor – his career was heading for the buffers.

Most of his views are as Right-wing as those of his boss, but he is a lot better at hiding when things are going wrong. Mr Pence once advocated transferring funding for the treatment of HIV/Aids victims to ‘conversion therapy’ programmes to change people’s sexual orientation. Two years ago he signed Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which legalised discrimination against the LGBT community. He is non-smoker but is on record as saying that smoking doesn’t kill and that two-thirds of smokers die of something not related to their habit. His relationship with his wife, Karen, is a thing of legend. When Indiana’s Governor, he had on his desk a red telephone she had given to him – and only she knew the number. He apparently calls her ‘Mother’, refuses to dine alone with another woman and will only attend an event at which alcohol is served if his wife can join him. People might want to see someone else in the Oval Office. If it ends up being Mr Pence, it may just mean a new kind of crazy.