Wherever Pence goes, Trump—at his petty best—shows up to steal the spotlight

If anyone ever harbored the notion that Donald Trump's travel schedule had anything to do with international diplomacy or even helping the Republican party through the midterms, forget about it. The chief motivation behind public appearances of the pettiest and most pitiful of all presidents primarily revolves around making sure he upstages his vice president, Mike Pence. 

When Pence was slated to keynote the National Rifle Association convention that Trump never even planned on attending, for instance, Trump suddenly wanted in, writes Politico.

That led to a change of plans in the West Wing, according to two people familiar with the arrangement, and nearly a week after the NRA announced Pence would speak, the president was added to the schedule to speak moments after Pence.

It wasn’t the first time Trump has changed his plans to one-up the veep. It was originally Pence, not Trump, who planned to travel to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. But upon seeing who else would be attending, Trump decided to make the trip himself instead, bumping Pence off the schedule, according to a person familiar with the matter. [...]

“It was always pretty apparent that Pence had a role and that role was to be subservient to Trump,” said a former White House official who also served on the campaign. “Pence should be not seen and not heard and kind of put away in a corner and used as needed.”

Pence is in the corner, all right—planning his rise-from-Trump's-ashes 2020 bid for the presidency. May they both take each other down in a blaze of ignominy.