Mike Pence’s wife Karen did not greet President-elect Donald Trump or Melania Trump at Jimmy Carter’s funeral Thursday morning.
As the former vice president rose to shake hands with Trump, his wife remained seated. Neither of the Trumps extended a hand to her, and she did not appear to acknowledge them.
Mike Pence and Donald Trump’s political relationship publicly collapsed after Pence disobeyed Trump’s order to block the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election win. As Pence took shelter within the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, pro-Trump rioters erected makeshift gallows and called for his execution.
Throughout Trump’s first presidency, Melania Trump and Karen Pence traveled together to schools and military bases. The women did not maintain a relationship, at least not publicly, following their husbands’ falling-out.
In March of last year, the former vice president told Fox News that he wouldn’t support Trump in the 2024 presidential election. He also declined to endorse Joe Biden.
When CBS asked Karen Pence if Trump should return to office, she said that nobody “who puts himself above the Constitution should ever be president of the United States.”