Mike Pence’s new national security aide quits after two days, mistaken for a ‘Never Trumper’

A new national security aide to US Vice President Mike Pence stepped down on Sunday, only two days after being officially named to the job, after a behind-the-scenes White House argument hit the headlines, a White House official said.

The appointment of Jon Lerner to Pence’s team was one of the more short-lived personnel moves in a White House known for turbulent staff turnover and infighting, and the first to envelop the vice-president, who works hard to stay out of the drama.

Pence’s office had announced on Friday that Jon Lerner, a senior aide to United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, would become Pence’s top adviser on foreign policy issues. By Sunday night, the Vice-President’s office had issued a second statement that Lerner had withdrawn.

The issue boiled over on Friday, when Pence and his senior staff were on an eight-hour flight to Peru to attend the Summit of the Americas.

President Donald Trump had been become upset, the White House official said, when he was told in error that Lerner was a so-called “Never Trumper” – a term that describes anti-Trump Republicans.

Lerner had backed Republican Senator Marco Rubio during the primary race to pick the party’s candidate ahead of the 2016 presidential election.