Former US vice president warns Trump not to veer off ‘conservative agenda’

Pence credited Trump with “restoring morale and recruitment in our military and taking the fight to the Houthis.”

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

US President Donald Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, warned that the current administration would lose support if it did not adhere to a “conservative agenda” characterized by the president’s first term.

“When you look at those Trump-Pence years, they were years that we governed on a conservative agenda,” the former vice president said in an exclusive interview with Fox News after receiving the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in Boston on Sunday night.

Crediting Trump for defeating Democratic opponent Kamala Harris, Pence said, “President Trump, all the credit in the world for a historic victory last November and for sparing the country one more liberal Democrat administration.”

He also lauded the president for “securing our southern border, restoring morale and recruitment in our military, taking the fight to the Houthis.”

However, Pence warned that he would speak out if Trump continued certain policies, such as taxation, that he did not feel were in keeping with conservative values.

“I truly believe that some of the other steps the president is taking away from that conservative agenda should be a concern that would work against his legacy and ultimately the success of our party or our country. And so, we will continue to be a voice against them,” Pence continued.

“I do believe that for prosperity…for the success of our country, we need to stick to those time-honored principles of strong defense, American leadership on the world stage, less government, less taxes, traditional moral values, and the right to life, and I’m going to be a voice for that,” he added.

Pence then spoke critically about a proposal floated by White House officials to raise taxes on the wealthy before Trump nixed the idea.

“Any suggestion that I’ve heard among some in and around the administration that we raise the top margin rate, the so-called millionaires tax, would be an enormous tax increase on small business owners across America,” Pence said.

“It needs to be opposed,” he stated. “Let’s make all the Trump-Pence tax cuts permanent. That’s a way to really lay a foundation to grow the economy in the days ahead.”