Pence says Trump has departed from traditional conservative principles

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Donald Trump’s second administration has “departed” from the conservative playbook that shaped the Republican Party from Ronald Reagan onward, drawing a sharp line between movement orthodoxy and the populist right now dominating the GOP.

Speaking on NBC News’ Meet the Press and again in a related CBS Face the Nation interview, Pence said the party had long been defined by “American leadership, limited government, free market economics, [and] the right to life.” He argued that over the last four or five years, a “populist right” has taken hold instead, favoring grievance politics, isolationism abroad and big government and protectionism at home.

Pence said Trump’s second term has gotten “a lot right,” including securing the border, but he criticized the administration’s tariff policy and its approach to Ukraine and Eastern Europe. He said many MAGA voters would reject ideas such as nationalization of businesses, price controls and broad-based tariffs, even as he warned that the White House has drifted from the conservative agenda on abortion and foreign policy. He also said the administration had not done enough to restrict abortion pills and was trying to relegate the right to life to a state-only issue.

The most pointed break came over the Justice Department’s new $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund, which Pence called “deeply offensive” and a “bad idea.” The fund was created as part of a settlement of Trump’s $10 billion IRS-related lawsuit over leaked tax records and is intended to process claims through mid-December 2028. Pence said he did not want taxpayer money going to people who assaulted police officers or vandalized the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when he was at the Capitol helping oversee the Electoral College count that certified Joe Biden’s victory.

The fund has already sparked pushback on Capitol Hill and divided Republicans, with Senate GOP leaders forced to scrap plans to fund immigration enforcement after the issue exploded in conference. Pence said he was heartened that many Senate Republicans had spoken out against it, and framed the backlash as evidence that the conservative movement is still fighting over its identity. In his new book, What Conservatives Believe: Rediscovering the Conservative Conscience, Pence cast that fight as a warning for the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential race, arguing that Republicans can still win by returning to a Reagan-era vision of leadership, free markets and moral restraint rather than grievance and retaliation.