Mike Pence, the former vice-president, has given his strongest hints yet that he is going to run for the White House in 2024.
After serving as President Trump’s deputy for four years, Pence, 61, has announced a two-book deal with a major publisher and a new group of right-wing politicians that will promote the achievements of the former administration.
The former governor of Indiana is set to make as much as $4m from the agreement with Simon & Schuster. The first book, an autobiography, is expected to hit the shelves in 2023, putting Pence in the limelight ahead of any bid to secure the Republican nomination.
Trump and Pence are believed to have fallen out over the former president’s insistence that last year’s presidential election was stolen from him.
Trump was enraged that Pence oversaw the formal electoral college vote in Congress on January 6, a constitutional duty, that confirmed Joe Biden as president. The process was interrupted as a mob sacked the Capitol, leading to several deaths.
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“You can either go down in history as a patriot,” Trump apparently told him, “or you can go down in history as a p***y.”
It was reported in February that the relationship between the men is now amicable.
Pence may be trying to get out ahead of Trump, still the biggest draw in Republican politics, who is yet to announce whether he will stand again in 2024.
Pence’s new group, called Advancing American Freedom, will “promote the pro-freedom policies of the last four years”. A series of Republican luminaries including Newt Gingrich, Larry Kudlow, Kellyanne Conway and Rick Santorum will serve on its advisory board.
