LoBianco - Piety & Power Mike Pence and the Taking of the White House

The cherry-red, faux-antique phone sits on the top-left corner of the Resolute desk. President Michael R. Pence sits behind it, papers neatly arranged across the desk. The gold curtains that former president Donald Trump hung from the windows around the Oval Office have been replaced with something a bit more traditional, a bit more austere. But the painting of President Andrew Jackson remains, and therein lies the reminder that Pence now straddles the divide between the American tradition and the wild chaotic populism that ultimately put him in the presidency.

A small coterie of advisers attends most of the meetings in the Oval Office with the new president, Pence #46. Theres Marc Short, the master of pulling levers on Capitol Hill; Kellyanne Conway, Pences longtime political consultant who miraculously survived the entirety of Trumps presidency. Theres Josh Pitcock, the onetime chief of staff from the vice presidents office who had been deemed too wonkish and operational in 2016, but whose talents are back in vogue now that Pence has won the big prize. And then theres the one adviser whos never in the room, but always present, a reminder reflected in the high gloss of the red phone: Karen Pence.

Pences victory at the polls in 2024 wasnt resounding, but it was a victorya testimony to his long-term strategy to ride the wave of the political moment, but never lead it. He just held on tight until Trumpisms bitter end.

His signature achievement in eight years of carrying Trumps water was the establishment of a strong network of antiabortion pregnancy centerscenters that curbed abortions (and access to prenatal care) by undercutting Planned Parenthood clinics across the country. For pro-life activists who view their crusade in terms no less grand than the effort to end slavery, this was a resounding victory after decades of chipping away at the constitutional right.

The irony is that Trump still gets all the credit for being the strongest antiabortion president in the nations history. And now, after Trump made a total of four appointments to the Supreme Court, jam-packed the federal courts, recorded seven video messages for the annual Right to Life March, and beat back allegation after allegation of infidelity, Pence has almost nothing left to take credit for. Which he is okay with, honestlyhes always been the caretaker, the one who comes in after a big change and tidies up. When he was governor, he toiled in the shadow of Mitch Daniels and now that hes president, hes left dealing with all that Trump has left behind.

But none of that matters. Hes president. Number 46.

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This, of course, is an imagining of what the Pence presidency would look like, but it is rooted in the reporting throughout this book. It is based on an assessment of his political style, his executive abilities, his tight-knit circle of advisers, and the values at his personal core. Kellyanne Conway surprised me once by turning the tables and asking me what my assessment of Pences time in the White House was: Is he a glorified coatrack, or the Svengali, secretly tugging the strings of Trump and the U.S. government? I answered that he seemed to fall somewhere in between. He is the ultimate political shape-shifter; by turns, neither Dan Quayle nor Dick Cheney, but he can inhabit the persona of either if required.

To truly understand what a Pence presidency would look like, his governorship is the best modelit was the only time he was stripped of all protections and left to decide things flatly for himself. Which leads us back to the red phone at the corner of the desk. With Trump in such a weak position as president, unaware of the deep details and complex issues that swarm the president every day, schizophrenic in his decision making, the question inside Washington has often been, Is Mike Pence the shadow president?

The problem is, anyone asking that question is asking it about the wrong Pence. Second Lady Karen Pence rules the roost, and that faux-antique red phone in the vice presidents office is more powerful than anyone knows. She stayed on the phone with him throughout the day, every day, when he was governor, even though she worked from an office across the hall. She didnt walk over to his office, because then all the spies that dotted the statehouse would have seen her hand. Instead she stayed on her phone, and he on his.

Smart lobbyists in Indiana and Washington would occasionally use a trick to get through to Mike Pencethey would go through Pences former chief of staff Bill Smith, who was close with Karen, and he would pass the message to Karen who, if they were lucky, would pass it to Mike. There was all manner of cloak-and-dagger to it, buttoning up the actual message inside pillows of praise for Smith, packed with plaudits for Karen, and, finally, complete reverence for Pence. But the power of getting to Karen was undeniablewhich was part of the reason that Pences aides fought to show who had true access to her.

One former Trump White House official put it this way: Pence is philosophical, his thinking meanders sometimes as he weighs his options, and Karen is the one who usually keeps him looking in a singular direction.

But is Pences flip-flopping one of his most powerful political tools? The Trump presidency has tested this theory and given it credence. Pence was a free trade supporter for decades, part of what used to be a core principle for himin his first successful run for Congress in 2000, he beat back opponents who said that NAFTA was destroying Indiana communities. He said laid-off workers would need to learn new job skills to keep up with the changing economy. In 2016, as Carrier manufacturing was shutting down its Indianapolis plant, Pence refused to provide state subsidies to try and keep the manufacturer there. Just a few weeks after the 2016 election, Trump upstaged Pence in his home state and said he would do everything possible to keep the Carrier jobs there. An Indiana official bumped into Pence at the big announcement that they would provide state funding to keep Carrier there and asked him why the about-face? And Pence just smiled and slapped him on the back, Now were with you.

In Washington, some veteran Republican lobbyists and lawmakers said they were confident that Pence was actively fighting Trump on his efforts to impose tariffs on Chinasomething they said was guaranteed to wreck the economy. But a senior Democratic aide who had watched Pence work the halls on behalf of Trump offered this withering assessment, Hes all hat and no cattle. Which is to say, when Pence jaunted down Pennsylvania Avenue, to do Trumps bidding at the Capitol, lawmakers werent buying what he was selling because they knew Pences messages were empty and did not carry the full weight of presidential decision.

But there remained a core set of values, core principles that Trump couldnt touch and, indeed, that Pence drove as his hallmark issues inside the Trump administration: pro-life and religious freedom, or, put another way, antiabortion and antigay. Inside Trumps White House, he carved out a niche filling the Department of Health and Human Services with longtime aides who built out a department dedicated to curbing abortion. Pence welcomed longtime antiabortion activists to the White House for regular meetings and they worked closely to place new limits on access. And, of course, cutting taxes. In Indiana he wanted to do away with the states income tax entirely and replace it with a usage tax similar to an inflated sales tax. And in Washington, he helped push through Trumps sweeping tax cuts while easily dropping previous concerns about federal debt.

Throughout the Trump presidency, Pence has shown a seemingly endless ability to bend and contort himself, to swim with the political power tides. And, by bending, he has won long-sought goals at the hands of the porn star presidency. So, what about when the reins come off, when he no longer must carry water for Trump? Make no mistake: the Oval Office is his ultimate goal, and if he achieves it, it will be the truest test of Pences loyalties.