Many of Trump’s former cabinet members did not attend the RNC
Former Vice President Mike Pence, who was targeted in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, was not in attendance.
The 2024 Republican National Convention featured a long lineup of speakers, including Republican members of Congress Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Matt Gaetz of Florida; former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson; former President Donald Trump’s adult children; and disgraced former wrestler Hulk Hogan, who was fired from World Wrestling Entertainment in 2015 after he was caught on camera using the “N” word.
However, absent from the stage in Milwaukee were a number of Trump’s former cabinet members, some of whom have come out publicly to say that Trump is not fit for office and that they will not be voting for him in November.
Most notably, former Vice President Mike Pence was not in attendance.
Trump did not keep Pence on the ticket in his run for reelection, and instead replaced him with Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance. He turned on Pence after he had refused to go along with Trump’s plan after the 2020 presidential election to block certification of Joe Biden’s victory in order to keep Trump in the White House. But Vance has said that he supported Trump’s plan to submit slates of alternate electors after the 2020 election and like Trump is suggesting he may not accept the results of the election in 2024.
Trump supporters erected a noose on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol during the rioting that took place on Jan. 6, 2021, the day Congress met to certify Biden’s victory, and chanted, “Hang Mike Pence!” Politico reported in 2022 that Trump had “expressed support” for that sentiment. Former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson made the same claim in 2023.
Pence has said he won’t endorse Trump’s bid for a second term.
“I’m incredibly proud of the record of our administration,” Pence told Fox News in March. “But that being said, during my presidential campaign, I made it clear there were profound differences between me and President Trump on a range of issues. And not just our differences on our constitutional duties that I exercised on Jan. 6.”
Former White House chief of staff John Kelly, a retired general, was also not at the RNC.
In 2023, Kelly confirmed that Trump had called veterans who were killed in action “losers,” that Trump did not want to be seen with veterans who’d had amputations because he worried that it would have a negative impact on his image, and that he admired dictators and autocrats.
“There is nothing more that can be said,” Kelly told CNN. “God help us.”
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper was also not there. In 2022, Esper said Trump is “unfit for office.”
“He puts himself before country,” Esper told CNN, saying he would not vote for Trump again. “His actions are all about him and not about the country. And then, of course, I believe he has integrity and character issues as well.”
Also missing was John Bolton, a Trump national security adviser, who has slammed Trump’s national security policies.
“I’m unhappy with Donald Trump. I’m not terribly happy with his selection of J.D. Vance as a running mate,” Bolton said in an interview with the British media outlet Times Radio. “I don’t plan to vote for Trump. … I think it’s going to be an unhappy four years for the United States.”
