'Even Mike Pence knows': Internet erupts after Trump’s former VP skewers his new tariffs

02 April

Bedford, N.H. USA - Aug. 5, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks during an event sponsored by Polaris National Security (Image: Shutterstock)

Shortly after President Donald Trump issued Wednesday’s announcement of new tariffs, four Senate Republicans joined Democrats to extend a lopsided bipartisan rebuke to his trade policy. The Senate adopted a resolution by a 51 to 48 vote to block his proposed tariffs on imports from Canada, a longtime US ally. Now, former Vice President Mike Pence is further infuriating Trump supporters by calling out his new tariffs as “a tax.”

Pence cited a statement from his Advancing American Freedom Foundation describing the tariffs as “the largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history,” capable of spoiling “America’s golden age before it begins.”

“The Trump Tariff Tax will cost American families more than $3,500 per year,” Pence's foundation claimed, adding, “The median American family earns about 101,000 a year. A new $3,500 tax would easily erase three years’ worth of pay raises for most families."

The statement quickly drew howls of fury from Trump supporters who believe Pence undermined Trump’s attempt to overthrow the 2020 election when he refused to support Trump and his “gaggle of crackpot lawyers” who asked him “to literally reject votes” at the Jan. 6 certification proceeding in 2020.

Onesupporter compared Pence’s tariff-related share on X as “treason” because he owes Trump “his loyalty,” while hundreds of others accused him of betrayal.

Many more notable X observers welcomed Pence as one of few Republican voices speaking openly against the destructive tariffs, even as Trump’s announcement sank stock prices andtumbled markets within minutes on Wednesday. FamiliesUSA Deputy Senior Policy Director Ben Andersonseized on Pence’s post, pointing out that “even Mike Pence knows Trump's tariffs are taxing poor and middle-income families to give to the rich, and extort American businesses to establish cronyism and oligarchy.

News anchor Lawrence O’ Donnellreferenced the post as an example that, “Trump Republicans now support the biggest tax increase in history,” andagreed that “Yes, it’s not just a tax. It’s the biggest one in history.”

Until today, the vast majority of GOP members have supported Trump’s multiple tariffs, or they have refused to publicly speak against them. It was no surprise, then, that reporters like New York Times bestselling author and NPRreporter Steve Inskeep and Sandiego Union-Tribunereporter Tom Mallory were quick to document the growing chink in Republican unity.

Still more X users expressed gratitude to Pence, “for being a conservative and supporting free markets,” while others were more grudging in their appreciation. Pence spent most of his tenure as Trump’s VP fully endorsing the most controversial of Trump’s first-term initiatives.

“I HATE when I have to agree with Mike Pence,” said one user, echoing a long roster of similar admissions.

Other commenters, including “Useful Idiot” author and reporterS.V. Dáte, worried Pence was working his way onto Trump’s hit list,saying “Hope the VP doesn’t have tattoos or he’s El Salvador bound.”

From Your Site Articles