Trump gets in furious first jab as Mike Pence prepares to criticize MAGA base in speech

Former President Donald Trump lambasted his former running mate, Vice President Mike Pence, on Wednesday, claiming he'd gone to the "dark side."

Pence is expected to attack Trump-style "populism" at a speech in New Hampshire Wednesday, when he will say the "siren song of populism" should be thrown aside and Republicans should embrace conservatism.

Describing populism as a path to "decline" and irrelevance, Pence said the "limited government" and "traditional moral values" that the Republican Party had embraced for 50 years should be reinstated.

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But Trump got in the first jab on Truth Social.

Trump's accused Pence of "mak[ing] up stories about me. Which are absolutely false."

Trump has long accused Pence of cowardice for not siding with his election fraud claims on Jan. 6. “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done," Trump tweeted at the time, prompting a crowd at the Capitol began chanting, "Hang Mike Pence!"

“It was essentially him giving the green light to these people," testified former White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews.

Lashing out on Wednesday, Trump said that for seven years his running-mate "spoke well of me" but, "Now he’s decided to go to the 'Dark Side.'"

"I never said for him to put me before the Constitution," wrote Trump. Asking Pence not to approve the electoral count on Jan. 6 is against the Constitution. Still, Trump claimed, "I don’t talk that way, and wouldn’t even think to suggest it."

He went on to trash Pence, saying he, "failed badly on calling out Voter Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election."

Finally, he brought up Pence's failing presidential campaign. "Based on the fact that he is at approximately 2% in the Polls, with no money or support, he obviously did the wrong thing. His advisors have led him down a very bad path!"