PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: Former Vice President Mike Pence criticized President Donald J. Trump’s second-term agenda in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
👥 Who’s Involved: Mike Pence, President Trump, Kaitlan Collins, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
📍 Where & When: Interview at JFK Presidential Library, Boston, following Pence’s acceptance of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award on Sunday, May 4, 2025.
💬 Key Quote: “I do think this version of tariff policy that’s broad-based, indiscriminate, applies tariffs to friend and foe alike, is not a win for the American people,” said Pence.
⚠️ Impact: Pence continues to ramp up his attacks on President Trump and his administration, solidifying his role as a front man for the globalist political establishment.
IN FULL:
Former Vice President Mike Pence is continuing to act as the political establishment’s front man in attacking the polices of President Donald J. Trump. Speaking with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins—herself a quasi-conservative media figure turned corporate media apparatchik—Pence blasted Trump’s agenda from tariffs to the January 6 pardons to trying to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine.
“I do think this version of tariff policy, that’s broad-based, indiscriminate, applies tariffs to friend and foe alike, is not a win for the American people. There may be a price shock in the economy,” Pence said. Notably, Pence has long been a mainstay with the pro-corporate and anti-Trump Club for Growth, using their donor summit in 2023 to put distance between himself and his former running mate.
Addressing President Trump’s decision to pardon—and in some instances commute the sentences of—the January 6 defendants, Pence told Collins: “I was deeply disappointed, it sent the wrong message.”
Meanwhile, while discussing the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Pence insisted that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not rest until all of Ukraine belongs to Russia. Notably, most experts on the region, while acknowledging Russian aims in Eastern Ukraine, are fairly emphatic that Russia would not be able to control or even desire control over Western Ukraine.
Lastly, the former Vice President continued to lament the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services, citing the Kennedy clan scion’s abortion stance. However, Kennedy, in his confirmation, made certain guarantees not to allow his personal beliefs to interfere with his public duties. The National Pulse has previously reported that Pence and his allies worked behind the scenes to derail the Kennedy nomination.