Batya Ungar-Sargon argued that the political agenda associated with former Vice President Mike Pence no longer reflects the priorities of Trump voters.
“Vice President Pence is outfit represents exactly the kind of free trade, foreign entanglement, socially conservative agenda that Trump voters have really left behind,” Ungar-Sargon said.
“I guess my question would be, Nikki Haley ran on that exact platform that you’re describing. Maybe you even voted for in the primary. She outspent President Trump two to one, and she only won two states. He blew her out of the water. The voters just aren’t there anymore.”
Ungar-Sargon questioned whether voters had already rejected those principles.
“And so when you say, This is what our country was founded on, I mean, don’t the voters get a say in what those values should be? And didn’t they have their say when they voted for Trump?” she said.
Marc Short rejected the comparison to Nikki Haley and said voter behavior reflected support for Trump’s first term policies.
“I don’t look I think that the Nikki Haley comparison is a red herring. This has really nothing to do with Nikki Haley,” Short said.
“But I think that the reality is that a lot of voters, I think, were hoping they would get the Trump on the first term. I mean, they had four years of those policies, and so in many cases, they were voting for it.”
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Short said Republican voters rallied behind Trump after legal actions taken against him.
“And I think when the Biden DOJ used lawfare to go after him, it rallied Republican voters back around him, and that’s fine,” he said.
“He defeated all those candidates. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t continue to stand on principle if you’re a conservative.”
Short criticized conservative groups he said had abandoned those principles.
“It doesn’t mean that all conservative groups you begin to all of a sudden, be quiet when the government begins buying up private sector companies,” Short said.
“I’ve traveled the country to to dozens of rallies across the country for Donald Trump’s campaign. And I never remember one of those people kind of say, Boy, I really wish we had more state owned enterprises in America.”
Ungar-Sargon pointed to Trump’s campaign positions.
“But he did campaign on tariffs,” she said.
Short responded, “Yeah. He’s been consistent on that. You’re absolutely right.”
Ungar-Sargon continued, “He campaigned on ending the war in Ukraine and ending our support for it, right? So a lot of these things, ending the foreign entanglements, a protectionist economic agenda that says no to free trade.”
Short said the debate was not about Trump himself.
“You mix it up. This isn’t about Donald Trump,” he said.
“This is about conservative organizations holding firm for those same conservative values, regardless of who’s in the Oval Office.”
He said conservative groups should not abandon their principles.
“And I think in many cases, many of those same conservative groups have been coward because they don’t want to go and criticize President Trump, but they’ve abandoned those same things they were founded on,” Short said. “And we’re not going to do that. We’re going to stand firm for conservatism.”
Ungar-Sargon acknowledged the position but questioned its political viability.
“I truly admire that, because I admire anybody who takes an unpopular stand,” she said.
“But I think in admitting that it’s unpopular, you’re sort of admitting that the electorate is not there anymore.”
Short rejected that characterization.
“I didn’t admit it was unpopular,” he said.
“What I just said to you is I think a lot of voters voted for Donald Trump because they thought it’d be a repeat of the first administration, and the first administration was very conservative.”
WATCH:
Mike Pence represents the version of theGOP that voters left behind. It’s the platform Nikki Haley ran on, outspending Trump 2-to-1, only to crash and burn with GOP voters. Shouldn’t the voters get to define the agenda? I had the pleasure of posing this question to @marctshort: pic.twitter.com/zqOEkF5sqK
— Batya Ungar-Sargon (@bungarsargon) December 24, 2025
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