Mike
Pence rebukes Trump over tariffs and ‘wavering’ support for Ukraine
Former
vice-president says tariffs ‘not a win for the American people’ and predicts
public pressure will grow
Robert Tait
in Washington
Tue 6 May 2025 01.41 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/05/pence-trump-tariffs-ukraine
Donald
Trump’s tariffs policy will trigger a “price shock” and possible shortages, and
lead to public pressure on him to change his approach, the former
vice-president Mike Pence has said.
In one of
his most wide-ranging critiques yet on the policies of the president he used to
serve, Pence, speaking to CNN, derided the White House’s “wavering” support for
Ukraine and declared – in direct contradiction of repeated assurances from
Trump – that President Vladimir Putin of Russia “doesn’t want peace”.
Pence’s
comments came in an interview after receiving the John F Kennedy Profile in
Courage award in recognition of his refusal to bow to pressure from Trump to
overturn the 2020 presidential election when he presided over Congress’s
certification of the results on 6 January 2021.
The vice
president’s determination to carry out his constitutional role and certify Joe
Biden’s victory presaged an attack on the US Capitol by a violent mob, who
chanted “hang Mike Pence”, as the vice-president was spirited to safety by
security personnel.
Pence told
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that Trump’s decision to pardon about 1,600 convicted
rioters after he returned to office in January “sent the wrong message”.
“I was
deeply disappointed to see President Trump pardon people that engaged in
violence against law enforcement officers that day,” he said.
Addressing
tariffs – which Trump has made a signature policy of his second presidency
while implementing a 90-day pause on exports from most countries after
international markets plunged – Pence said they were “not a win for the
American people” and warned that their worst effects had yet to be seen.
“I do have
concerns that, with the president’s call for broad-based tariffs against friend
and foe alike, that ultimately the administration is advancing policies that
are not targeted at countries that have been abusing our trade relationship,
but rather are essentially new industrial policy that will result in inflation,
that will harm consumers and that will ultimately harm the American economy,”
he said.
“Even the
administration has conceded that there may be a price shock in the economy, and
there may be shortages” after the current pause expires, Pence said.
He said the
White House was in danger of stoking a political backlash, citing Trump’s
recent comment that tariffs might result in American children having two dolls
instead of 30 and that “maybe the dolls will cost a couple of bucks more”.
“Keeping our
kids’ toys affordable: that really is part of the American dream,” he said.
“I think the
American people are going to see the consequences of this. I think they’ll
demand a different approach.”
He
criticized the administration for threatening to abandon support for Ukraine,
whose president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump has publicly blamed for Russia’s
invasion, while repeatedly praising Putin – relenting only recently after the
Russian leader rebuffed peace offers and instead ordered missile attacks on
Kyiv.
Pence said:
“If the last three years teaches us anything, it’s that Vladimir Putin doesn’t
want peace; he wants Ukraine. And the fact that we are now nearly two months of
following a ceasefire agreement that Ukraine has agreed to and Russia continues
to delay and give excuses confirms that point.
“The
wavering support the administration has shown over the last few months, I
believe, has only emboldened Russia.”
He was
equally scathing about Trump’s stance towards Canada, which he had hit with
trade tariffs and said he would like to annex as the 51st US state.
Pence, by
contrast, called Canada “a great ally, whose soldiers have fought and died
alongside Americans in every war since world war one”.
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