The same day that Vice President Mike Pence reiterated his lock-step devotion to his boss by mirroring his water bottle adjustment, President Trump wished Pence a happy birthday on Twitter — by copying a tweet Ivanka Trump posted.
“Happy Birthday to our Vice President Mike Pence!” Ivanka Trump tweeted and Instagrammed Wednesday morning. “It is an honor to serve with such an exemplary leader. Cheers!” She posted the message with a photo of her posing with her father and Pence, who leaned, Tower of Pisa-style, toward the president.
Happy Birthday to our @VP Mike Pence! It is an honor to serve with such an exemplary leader. Cheers! ?
?: Official White House Photo pic.twitter.com/mtMc66pZgV— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) June 7, 2018
A few hours later, Trump reposted Ivanka’s message to Instagram — “Happy Birthday to our Vice President Mike Pence! It is an honor to serve with such an exemplary leader. Cheers!” — adding, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY @VP!!#Repost @ivankatrump.”
But that was it. Notably, Trump posted no wishes at all via his preferred method of communication, Twitter.
Pence’s obsequiousness toward Trump has opened him to internet mockery, from his repeated use of the term “broad-shouldered” to describe Trump, to his beatific gaze toward the president at public events, to yesterday’s water-bottle incident. According to the book “Fire & Fury,” Pence is “almost absurdly happy to be Donald Trump’s vice president, happy to play the role of exactly the kind of vice president that would not ruffle Trump’s feathers,” often “barely seeming to exist in the shadow of Donald Trump.”
Trump doesn’t return the affection. He has mocked Pence’s piety — the New Yorker reported that Trump once asked a visitor, “Did Mike make you pray?” and “joked” that Pence wanted to hang gay people — and is disdainful of the vice president’s relatively low net worth. Pence even uses that to endear himself to Trump: In April, Axios reported that Pence publicly jokes about how much poorer he is than the president, and “Trump loves that.”
But not enough to warrant an birthday tweet, apparently.
