Mike Pence ridiculed by insider for sucking up to Trump behind closed doors over fears the president will turn on him

According to a report at The Atlantic on the few aides and cabinet members surrounding President Donald Trump who have escaped his wrath and held onto their jobs, it is revealed that Vice President Mike Pence is just as obsequious to Trump in private as he is in public settings.

Listing off aides such as White House adviser Stephen Miller, who has outlasted his mentor Steve Bannon while keeping the president's ear on immigration matters, Peter Nicholas notes the role that Pence plays as a supplicant to the president -- keeping himself in the good graces of the volatile president who has attacked his hand-picked attorney general and Defense Department head when they displeased him.

According to the report, "In public, Vice President Mike Pence has likened Trump to towering historical figures. 'From King David’s time to our own, President Trump has now etched his name into the ineffaceable story of Jerusalem,' Pence said in a speech last year at the Israeli embassy in Washington."

Nicholas adds, "Behind closed doors he is no less gushing, taking pains to ensure that Trump has no cause to turn on him, people familiar with the matter say."

According to the correspondent, Pence fears Trump could dump him before the 2020 presidential convention -- which would not be out of character for the unpredictable Trump who loves headlines -- and that Pence's fawning over Trump is constantly on display.

"I’d like my wife to look at me just for one day the way Mike Pence looks at President Trump every day they’re together. That would be special,” Kenneth Adelman, an official in Reagan’s administration, told Nicholas.

As the author notes, "Under the Constitution, Trump can’t fire Pence. Yet he could rid himself of the vice president by dropping him from the 2020 ticket. Or he could use his Twitter feed to marginalize and humiliate Pence. That’s been known to happen. But Pence never seems to run afoul of Trump. Some of it may be his hardwiring: He has innate deference to power, people who have worked with him say."

The report goes on to say that Trump is pleased with Pence so far, with presidential confidant Rudy Giuliani admitting, "The president once said to him that making Pence his running mate was 'probably the best choice I made—and I made a few bad ones'."

Nicholas adds that aides to Pence have been dismayed that the vice president has not stood up to Trump when he disagreed with him.

You can read more here -- including how Kellyanne Conway survives.