The Pence-Trump divide deepens, this time over guns

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What Pence didn’t talk about, however, is perhaps more instructive: Championing red flag laws that give law enforcement officials the opportunity to intervene when someone is deemed high risk, as well as well as the ban on bump stocks. Those two issues are Trump’s openings or actions during his administration. Pence advocated for red flag laws as vice president, but has since rejected the idea, with his group Advancing American Freedom coming out against it in March 2022.

It would make for interesting political theater, said a Republican close to such NRA proceedings who met with Trump and Pence on the issue of guns, and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

The reversal is part of an effort to paint Trump as untrustworthy of Second Amendment rights. And, indeed, when asked for comment, a Pence adviser sent a February 2018 Daily Mail item referring to Sen. Diane Feinsteins (D-Calif.) positive reaction to Trump’s willingness to consider gun restrictions: Feinstein cant contain her glee in gun control meeting with Magkatakata.

That article details an infamous gathering of lawmakers following the Parkland, Fla., shooting. In an effort to further the distinction, a Pence ally said that in a subsequent Oval Office meeting in 2018, Pence talked Trump out of those restrictions. A person familiar with those discussions, who did not secure a position in the 2024 primary, confirmed the exchange.

Trump speaks in 2018 in the Cabinet Room of the White House during a meeting with members of Congress to discuss school and community safety. With the former president, from left, Pence, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) . | Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo

He’s moving away from Trump, not toward him, said longtime Pence friend Mike Murphy, a former Republican member of the Indiana House of Representatives. She seems to be getting more confident in her own skin every day.

It’s all part of a political tightrope Pence faces ahead of what is expected to be his own campaign launch later this summer: How to articulate the rationale for his candidacy and distinguish himself from the man he served. he without hesitation for four years.

The cattle call in front of rank-and-file NRA members amid the advertised 14 acres of guns and gear this weekend was the first time both Pence and Trump have shared a stage since leaving they are in the office. And it will be the first in a series of events before the 2024 presidential primary where they will both be featured speakers. Pence and Trump are both addressing top RNC donors in Nashville this weekend. The two are unlikely to cross paths, a person familiar with the logistics of the event told POLITICO. And in both cases, Trump will have the last word.

They will choreograph it, said a person close to the Trump and Pence orbit.

In addition, they will both speak at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition spring kick off next week, although Trump will give his speech remotely.

The dueling displays come amid an increasingly icy and unprecedented point in their relationship. Never in American history has a sitting vice president challenged a former president of his own party.

This is not just a political conflict. They may also be at odds in the courts. Trump appealed the federal courts’ decision to compel Pence to testify before a grand jury investigating Trump’s effort to subvert the 2020 election.

Trump appeared last year at the NRA’s annual convention in Houston just days after the deadly school shooting in Uvalde. In his speech, Trump called for an overhaul of school security measures, including allowing only one entrance to schools and metal detectors, and he also emphasized the need for better policies on mental health. Trump, like many Republicans, has said that responsible gun owners are the best line of defense against mass shootings.

Trump is a member of the NRA, and his son, Donald Trump Jr., is a gun-sporting enthusiast who even formed his own gun rights group, the Second Amendment Task Force, focused on pushing back against Democrat gun control efforts. Pence, meanwhile, is known for pheasant and quail hunting.

The two haven’t spoken in two years, and often use reporters as proxies to send messages to each other. I’ve debated Donald Trump before, Pence told Bret Baier last month. Not just when the cameras are on.

Trump seems to have noticed Pences new tone, telling reporters last month after Pence criticized Trump at the Gridiron Club Dinner for his role on Jan. 6: I think he decided that being nice doesn’t work because he’s He was 3% in the polls, so he thought he might not be nice anymore.

Playing with Pence has been Trump’s strategy of late. The former president praised Pence when asked about him before noting his sadness at Pence’s decision to fulfill his constitutional duties on Jan. 6. That’s because Trump, according to advisers and people close to his campaign, believes a crowded field that includes Pence will only work to his advantage in the primaries.

Trumps team has so far shied away from the Pences recent attacks and their upcoming shared episode.

It’s clear that he’s not only the frontrunner in this election but also the leader of the party and the fact that he’s the featured speaker is proof of that, a Trump adviser said.

Ralph Reed, who knows Pence and Trump well and whose organization, the Faith and Freedom Coalition, remains neutral, compares the Pence-Trump dynamic to the Republican presidential battle in 1912 when the two former collaborators, former president Theodore Roosevelt and incumbent President William Howard Taft, ran against each other.

“It’s two people who are so close that have so much love for each other and become partners and now they’re running against each other and it’s going to be a very interesting dynamic to witness,” Reed said. I tend to think that Pence tends to take the high ground while being honest and clear about his differences with his former boss. And I think there was a lot of litigation as a result of the assumption that Pence got in.

The tension surrounding Trump and Pence sharing two stages this weekend has been heightened by the fact that few other 2024 hopefuls are coming out in person.

As Trump and Pence hop from state to state to make their case to gun enthusiasts and the party’s top donors, DeSantis on Friday will speak at Liberty University treading the Pences’ territory with conservatives. religion and headlines a GOP dinner in New Hampshire on Saturday. Scott has his own donor retreat this weekend in Charleston, and Haley is attending her daughters wedding.

Pence avoided other beef calls in the past year where Trump was speaking. For example, Pence skipped several recent CPAC gatherings at one stage where he was booed the last time he attended but he also stayed away from last year’s Faith & Freedom Coalition conference in Nashville, where Trump went to stage. His decision to sit out an event for an evangelical audience highlighted Pences reluctance to confront Trump in a public way.

Not anymore. But it may be too late.

I don’t think there’s much interest in the story of Trump versus Pence at all anymore, said Mike Dennehy, a Republican strategist in New Hampshire who worked on John McCain’s presidential campaigns. I would be surprised if Donald Trump even slapped Mike Pence. The only person on Trumps radar right now is Ron DeSantis and frankly, he is the only candidate that should be.

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