‘Largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history’: Mike Pence blasts his former master Trump’s tariffs

Mike Pence has been on the outs with Donald Trump since 2020. To be fair to Pence, we’d be annoyed too if our boss whipped a crowd of lunatics into a frenzy as they erected gallows to hang us from.

Pence even stood against Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination, though dropped out mere months later when it became apparent that his popularity among the MAGA crowd was at rock bottom. He refused to even endorse Trump during the election, didn’t attend the Republican convention, and generally stayed quiet even as journalists pestered him for his opinion.

Well, now Trump’s bonkers tariffs plan has seen him break cover, describing it as effectively “the largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history” and estimating that each and every American family will be $3,500 a year poorer:

The Trump Tariff Tax is the largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history. These Tariffs are nearly 10x the size of those imposed during the Trump-Pence Administration and will cost American families over $3,500 per year. Check Out“Spoiling America’s Golden Age”@AmericanFreedom 👇 pic.twitter.com/2NghyDc8c1

— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) April 2, 2025

He’s probably right, not that this matters. Pence was chewed up and spat out by Trump, and if he actually had any strong convictions he should have expressed them when they might have made a difference, either during the election or in Trump’s first term. In a unique moment, both sides of the political spectrum have united to tell Pence: “no one cares what you think“.

MAGA is telling him that he’s pointlessly grandstanding:

You, @Mike_Pence, are intentionally misleading people. You know full well that @realDonaldTrump's plan for RECIPROCAL TARIFFS will FORCE THE HAND OF THOSE NATIONS WHO ARE ALREADY IMPOSING TARIFFS ON US! They remove/lower their tariffs on us and we reciprocate. STOP GRANDSTANDING!

— Shane Pitman (@ShanePitman) April 3, 2025

While liberals are saying he’s partially responsible for this whole mess:

Mike Pence helped create this economic wrecking ball—and now he wants to pretend he’s just a spectator?

You stood by while Trump wrecked our democracy.
You cheered on chaos and tax cuts for billionaires.

Now you care about working families?

Spare us.#StopProject2025 #NoKings

— No Kings Here (@Stop_Project25) April 2, 2025

We can only agree that Mike Pence has had his time in the limelight and nobody needs to hear from him again, whatever his current political stance might be. He’s currently working on and off as a lecturer at Pennsylvania’s Grove City College, where we guess he’s at least speaking to students who are interested in what he’s got to say.

In the meantime we’d be happy if we never heard the name Mike Pence again. That said, we have a sneaking admiration for anyone so politically cack-handed that almost everyone with political views hates your guts.