President Trump has tried and failed to stop swearing around his religious vice president

(Image credit: Ty Wright/Getty Images)

published 29 March 2017

President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are very different kinds of people, to say the least. That's why, when the Access Hollywood tape featuring Trump's lewd remarks about forcing himself on women was released last year, Pence was one of the first people Trump called to offer an apology (he also apologized on the phone to Pence's wife). Pence, by contrast, proposed to his wife while feeding ducks in the park and kept a red phone on his desk that only she had the ability to call, The Washington Post reports.

Needless to say, Trump and Pence have had to make some adjustments around each other since moving to Washington:

Mr. Pence's relationship with Mr. Trump is more respectful than familial, people close to both men said. They have worked out an odd-couple shtick in public, but the stark cultural differences are obvious. The president briefly tried to curb his use of expletives in front of his religious vice president but has reverted to four-letter form — and Mr. Pence, who is fond of joining colleagues for moments of shared prayer, has been less religiously demonstrative around Mr. Trump, aides say. [The New York Times]

As Indiana Rep. Luke Messer (R) put it to the Times, "There is quite a contrast between Mike and the president. Trump does not sound like a Hoosier — he says things I wouldn't say, he picks fights I wouldn't pick. But their relationship really works."

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.