President Donald Trump and Mike Pence, his vice president during his first term, don’t exactly have a great relationship these days, especially after Pence, on January 6, 2021, refused to throw out electoral votes and go along with Trump’s plans to overturn the 2020 election.
Pence has not been a part of the second Trump Administration, and he even ran for president himself in 2024, although he and Trump never debated.
This week, Pence shared one of the last interactions he ever had with his former running mate.
Mike Pence: I said ‘Mr. President, I want you to know, I’m praying for ya.’ He said, ‘Don’t bother.’ pic.twitter.com/UrxM77tk5N
— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) September 17, 2026
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Pence recently appeared at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., where he was asked about a meeting he had with Trump just a few days after January 6.
“I’ll never forget particularly a moment I was in that back dining room, just off the Oval Office,” Pence said in Washington. “He seemed downcast as he had since that sixth day of January. And I looked at him as I got up from our meeting, and I said, ‘Mr. President, I want you to know.’ I said, ‘I’m praying for you.’”
Trump’s reply, according to Pence?
“Don’t bother.”
Mike Pence says he has ‘no plans’ to run for president, other offices in 2028https://t.co/7KQvISWfAI
— The Hill (@thehill) September 17, 2026
“I said, ‘I get the impression we’re never going to agree on my duties on Jan. 6, and I’m never going to stop praying for you,’” Pence said in the speech in Washington. “And I never have.” Pence added that he and Trump spoke “from time to time” after they left office, but once Trump continued speaking about the “stolen election,” the two men “parted ways.”
The two were not only at odds about January 6, the exchange makes clear, but they had profound differences in religious philosophy, as Pence is a very religious Christian man, while Trump is not, and is certainly not someone who would ever say that he’s praying for someone.
Pence, who now runs a think tank, also made clear that he has no plans to run for president again in 2028.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
