The Shadow President_The Truth About Mike Pence by Michael D'Antonio & Peter Eisner

Author:Michael D'Antonio & Peter Eisner [D'Antonio, Michael & Eisner, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B07DHLFQQ4
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
Published: 2018-08-28T00:00:00+00:00

9

WHEN TRUMP CALLS

Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.

—Proverbs 27:2

On Wednesday, April 20, 2016, which was an unseasonably warm day in Indianapolis, Mike Pence stood at the front steps of the governor’s mansion wearing a light gray suit, white shirt, and blue tie. Blooming pansies and violets filled two big planters to either side of him. His serene face betrayed no emotion as a pair of black SUVs slowly entered the curved driveway. When the car stopped, Donald J. Trump and New Jersey governor Chris Christie emerged from the back seat of one of the SUVs into the warmth of the day. The three stood and chatted for a moment before they entered the mansion, followed by their aides. Christie would come to rue this day. It was the start of a beautiful friendship, or at least a strategic alliance, between Trump and Pence.

Inside, Trump and Christie found a homey version of an official residence. Family photos were arranged on the stairway leading to the second floor. A beagle named Maverick and two cats—Oreo and Pickle—wandered the house, and somewhere a bunny named Marlon Bundo and a snake named Sapphira were safely put away. A notorious germophobe, Donald Trump had owned a dog early in his first marriage, but he generally considered pets to be déclassé.

As governor of New Jersey, Christie had come to know Pence through the Republican Governors Association. He had been acquainted with Trump much longer. Christie had endorsed Trump after ending his own presidential campaign, becoming one of the very first to pick him out of the big field of candidates. For weeks, Christie had campaigned for the front-running candidate, often appearing with Trump, where he had a tendency to let his face go blank. This invited observers to imagine he was more than a little ambivalent about his circumstance. Trump was a vulgar man with no government experience, and in the previous year, Christie had said, “I just don’t think that he’s suited to be president of the United States.”1 From this starting point, he had evolved into a key Trump surrogate and the broker for this meeting with Pence.

Trump, who claimed to have a great memory, should have remembered that he had met with Pence twice before. A few years prior, Pence had visited with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Before that, in November 2011, Pence had met with Trump to ask for his financial support as he prepared to run for governor. This time, it was Trump who wanted something. The Indiana presidential primary was two weeks away, and Trump was fresh off a resounding victory in his home state of New York. He was hoping for a decisive win that would end the chances of his only remaining competitor, Texas senator Ted Cruz. He knew that Pence was unlikely to give him an endorsement. Pence and Cruz were aligned as hard-right Christians, and Cruz had offered Pence public support in 2015 after Pence signed the Indiana religious freedom act.

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