Donald Trump's Insult For Mike Pence On Jan 6 Should Have JD Vance Watching His Back

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Mike Pence has a complicated relationship with his former boss, Donald Trump. He didn't endorse Donald Trump in 2024, and in the run-up to the election, Pence had some targeted words of advice for JD Vance, Trump's second-time-around running mate. Now we can see another veiled warning coming Vance's way via Pence. In biographer Jonathan Karl's book "Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America," which is coming out on October 28, he included a photo of the notes that Pence reportedly took during a phone call on January 6, 2021. He also posted the photo on X (formerly known as Twitter), and it shows what appear to be a number of Trump's comments to Pence, including one that says, "You'll go down as a wimp."

Trump's nicknames and insults towards his perceived enemies have always been relatively low-brow, and it seems like he was trying to goad Pence into acting a certain way by calling him names. As some quick context and a reminder of what was happening on January 6, Trump wanted Pence to put a stop to the certification of the electoral votes that confirmed Joe Biden as the 2020 election winner. Pence refused to do so, despite Trump's reported insults and pressure. Vance should take note; if you don't do what Trump asks of you, he can quickly turn on you and resort to name-calling.

Social media has lit up over the purported Donald Trump comments to Mike Pence from January 6. Some think that the note should have come out sooner. Others think that Pence proved himself not to be a wimp, as Trump said he would, but rather a hero for not caving into Trump's demands. One person said that the notes showed Trump's true nature and legacy. "This isn't leadership; it's a meltdown staged in real time, and history will remember the cowardice behind the bluster, not the insults," the user wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

At the start of Trump's first presidency, he and his VP seemed like they were on relatively good terms when it came to the job. But Pence detailed how the two of them firmly split over January 6 in his book, "So Help Me God." He said that Trump's "reckless words had endangered my family and all those serving at the Capitol," via PBS. During the Capitol attack on January 6, a gallows and noose were erected and some rioters were chanting, "Hang Mike Pence," per CBS News. The notes that Pence took were apparently going to be a part of the legal case against Trump if a trial for his actions on January 6 had gone forward.