‘I was unfamiliar with your game’: Trump allegedly snubbed by ex-vice president’s wife at Jimmy Carter’s funeral
Former Second Lady Karen Pence said and did absolutely nothing, and managed to say everything she wanted to say to President-elect Donald Trump at Jimmy Carter’s funeral service, Thursday. She remained firmly seated as her husband exchanged a perfunctory handshake with his former boss.
One X user jokingly wrote about the viral video: “Karen Pence i was unfamiliar with your game.” A tweet from @itsmearabrady said, “I personally would not shake the hand of the man who wanted me dead but whatever.”
According to multiple reports, the cold shoulder at Washington National Cathedral marked the first time Trump and the Pences shared space in four years. Their relationship fractured after Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the Capitol chanting, “Hang Mike Pence!”
In his 2022 memoir, Mike Pence wrote that Trump’s “reckless words” during the insurrection directly endangered his family. The former vice president had refused Trump’s demands to reject electoral votes from states that Joe Biden had won—an action Pence rightly maintained would violate the Constitution. Karen Pence, however, has been much more pointed in her criticism. “Nobody who puts himself above the Constitution should ever be president of the United States,” she told CBS last year when asked about Trump’s potential return to office.
The tension between Trump and the Pences carries particular weight at Carter’s funeral. Trump’s presence at the service raised eyebrows, given that much of his administrative agenda starkly opposes Carter’s legacy, including the Department of Education, which Carter established in 1979. The president-elect sees himself as Ronald Reagan’s temporal successor, which means everything Carter has ever done is in question and must be removed if he can make it happen.
Joe Walsh, former GOP congressman turned Trump critic, praised Karen Pence’s funeral stance on social media: “Good on Karen Pence. And the fact that this is the first time Mike Pence & Donald Trump have seen each other in four years is all on Trump. Trump tried to force Pence to defy the Constitution, and Trump almost had Pence killed.”
While Mike Pence, being as gee-golly lovely as he is, exchanged brief pleasantries with the Trumps, observers noted the interaction’s strained nature. The former vice president nodded curtly after their handshake before Trump moved on to engage in a surprisingly animated conversation with former President Barack Obama.
The funeral incident punctuates the Pences’ complete break from their former allegiance to Trump. Mike Pence told Fox News last year he wouldn’t endorse Trump’s 2024 bid, stating, “Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years.”
For Karen Pence, who once traveled regularly with Melania Trump to schools and military bases during their husbands’ administration, Thursday’s snub suggests the wounds from January 6 remain raw. Her silent protest spoke volumes about the lasting impact of that day. It was 24-to-48 hours of hell, which a lot of Republican politicians and voters have decided to push into the back of their heads when her husband—following his Constitutional duty—became a target of Trump’s most fervent supporters.
Her spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment about the funeral interaction. But Karen Pence’s seated resistance offered its own statement of sorts about loyalty, democracy, and the price of standing up to power and for her man.
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