Donald Trump

Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is the 45th (2017-2021) and 47th (2025) President of the United States. His relationship with U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC-1) spans her entire political career: she worked on his 2016 presidential campaign, broke with him publicly after the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack, became a target of his attacks when he endorsed her 2022 primary challenger, reconciled and won his re-endorsement in 2024, branded herself "Trump in high heels" while seeking his support for governor, and was passed over by him in 2026. What follows is a chronology of that relationship as documented in the public record.

Nancy Mace, official U.S. House portrait, 118th Congress

Nancy Mace, official U.S. House of Representatives portrait, 118th Congress (2022). Public domain.

From Trump campaign staffer to Congress (2015-2020)

Mace was an early backer of Trump's first presidential run and has described herself as "one of his earliest supporters" from his 2015 announcement onward. During the 2015-2016 cycle she worked for the Trump campaign; Jewish Insider and the Post and Courier reported her role as a field and coalition director, work that she has said took her to seven states, Texas, Ohio, Indiana, Nebraska, Wisconsin, California, and South Carolina, and for which campaign filings show she was paid more than $43,000. She left the campaign in August 2016 and won a seat in the South Carolina House that November. (Opponents later claimed she had been "fired"; Mace called that characterization "baseless.")

Donald Trump and Nancy Mace pose together in front of a DonaldJTrump.com campaign backdrop during the 2016 presidential campaign

Trump and Mace during his 2016 presidential campaign, she is wearing a "TRUMP STAFF" credential. Photo via FITSNews.

She was elected to Congress from South Carolina's 1st District in November 2020, defeating Democrat Joe Cunningham and becoming the first Republican woman elected to the U.S. House from South Carolina.

"I hold him accountable": the January 6 break (2021)

Mace was in the Capitol complex during the January 6, 2021 attack. That day she said on CBS News that she was "begging the president to get off Twitter." In the days that followed she became one of the more pointed Republican critics of Trump's conduct, while ultimately voting against his second impeachment on procedural grounds.

The U.S. Capitol during the January 6, 2021 attack

The U.S. Capitol, January 6, 2021. Photo: Tyler Merbler, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

In a CNN interview the morning after, Mace said Trump's record had been undone: "Everything that he's worked for … all of that; his entire legacy, was wiped out yesterday." She added, "I hold him accountable for the events that transpired for the attack on our Capitol," and, "we've got to start over." On January 11 she called the attack "domestic terrorism" and said Trump was "culpable," voicing support for censure. In her maiden floor speech during the January 13 impeachment debate she said, "I believe we need to hold the president accountable," but objected that "rushing this impeachment" in a short debate "poses great questions about the constitutionality of this process," and she voted no. On Fox News that same day she said of Trump's standing in the party: "His brand or his name. It's tarnished." In October 2021 she was one of nine House Republicans to vote to hold Trump ally Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress.

Mace on ABC News, January 12, 2021. (See also her real-time reaction on ABC News 4 and her BBC Newsnight interview on the threats she said she received.)

Just evacuated my office in Cannon due to a nearby threat. Now we're seeing protesters assaulting Capitol Police. This is wrong. This is not who we are. I'm heartbroken for our nation today.
Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) January 6, 2021

"Crazy Nancy Mace": Trump backs Katie Arrington (2018 and 2022)

Trump's most direct intervention in Mace's career came through Katie Arrington. He had first elevated Arrington in 2018, when a last-minute tweet ("I fully endorse Katie Arrington for Congress in SC … VOTE Katie!") helped her unseat incumbent Rep. Mark Sanford in the SC-01 Republican primary (Arrington then lost the general election to Cunningham).

Katie Arrington, official U.S. Department of Defense portrait, 2025

Katie Arrington, official U.S. Department of Defense portrait (2025). Public domain.

In 2022, with Mace as the incumbent, Trump backed Arrington again (this time to unseat Mace, in the wake of her January 6 criticism). On February 9, 2022, he endorsed Arrington and called Mace "an absolutely terrible candidate" who was "not at all representative of the Republican Party to which she's been very disloyal." Over the following months his attacks escalated:

"In the first congressional district, you have another horrendous RINO known as crazy Nancy Mace." (rally, Florence, S.C., March 12, 2022)

"She's nasty, disloyal, and bad for the Republican Party." (statement, March 17, 2022)

"…the nasty RINO Congresswoman with the fresh mouth and absolute hatred of America First." (Truth Social, May 2022)

"Frankly, she is despised by almost everyone, and who needs that in Congress, or in the Republican Party?" (days before the primary, June 2022)

Trump rally crowd, Conroe, Texas, January 29, 2022

A Trump rally crowd, Conroe, Texas, January 29, 2022. Public domain (CC0), via Wikimedia Commons.

Mace's response became one of the more memorable images of the feud. The day after Trump endorsed Arrington, she traveled to New York and filmed a video on the sidewalk in front of Trump Tower, cataloguing her loyalty (supporting Trump in 2015, working "in seven different states" for the 2016 campaign, backing him again in 2020) and warning that nominating Arrington risked handing the seat back to Democrats: "If you want to lose this seat once again in a midterm election cycle to Democrats, then my opponent is more than qualified to do just that." She also told The State flatly: "I'm gonna win without him."

News coverage including Mace's February 10, 2022 video outside Trump Tower, New York. (MS NOW / formerly MSNBC.)

She won anyway. On June 14, 2022, Mace defeated the Trump-endorsed Arrington in the primary, roughly 53 percent to 45 percent. Trump congratulated her the same night, posting that she "should easily be able to defeat her Democrat opponent."

Reconciliation and re-endorsement (2023-2024)

The relationship thawed over the next two years. At the February 2023 Washington Press Club Foundation dinner Mace joked at Trump's expense, "If you're going to lie, make it about something big, like you actually won the 2020 presidential election", but by the 2024 cycle she had repositioned squarely behind him. On January 22, 2024, the day before the New Hampshire primary, she endorsed Trump over fellow South Carolinian Nikki Haley, saying "the time has come to unite behind our nominee."

On March 9, 2024, Trump returned the favor with a Truth Social endorsement of Mace's House re-election over a primary challenger, writing that she "has my Complete and Total Endorsement!" The next day, on ABC's This Week, Mace defended her support for Trump after he was found civilly liable in the E. Jean Carroll case, speaking about her own experience as a rape survivor. She spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee that July, fully aligned with the Trump ticket.

Nancy Mace takes a selfie with supporters at a Donald Trump campaign rally in Conway, South Carolina, February 2024

Mace takes a selfie with supporters at a Trump campaign rally in Conway, South Carolina, February 10, 2024. Photo: Mace campaign, via ABC News 4 (WCIV).

"Trump in high heels": courting the 2026 endorsement (2025)

When Mace launched her 2026 campaign for South Carolina governor in early August 2025, she made Trump the centerpiece of her pitch and adopted a slogan that would define the bid, "Trump in high heels." At a Myrtle Beach town hall on August 6, 2025, she put it this way: "I am Trump in high heels. I love what I am doing. I mean, he doesn't sleep." At the same events she openly lobbied for his backing: "No one will work harder to get his attention and his endorsement," and, to a town-hall crowd, "I've done a lot for the president, and if you talk to him, I would really like his support for governor."

Mace coining "Trump in high heels," South Carolina town hall, August 2025 (CBS News).

A February 2026 Politico profile by Michael Kruse described Mace as regarding Trump as a "father figure." Recounting that she had shared her internal polling with him, she told Kruse she had "sent it to the other fatherly figure," and, asked what she wanted from Trump beyond a formal endorsement, she answered: "part of it's acknowledgement. Acknowledgment that I'm doing well. Approval." The same reporting, echoed by the Daily Beast, described her congressional office as featuring a life-size cardboard cutout of Trump dressed in a shirt and hat reading "MACE."

The access was, by the record, genuine. When Trump returned to the Capitol to address a joint session of Congress on March 4, 2025, he stopped on the House floor to greet Mace and shake her hand, the kind of authentic photograph she would later insist, on national television, that she possessed.

President Trump shakes hands with Rep. Nancy Mace on the House floor after his March 4, 2025 address to a joint session of Congress

President Trump shakes hands with Rep. Nancy Mace in the House chamber after addressing a joint session of Congress, March 4, 2025. Photo: AP (via Mediaite).

President Trump greets Rep. Nancy Mace on the House floor before his March 4, 2025 joint address to Congress

Trump greets Mace as he arrives to address the joint session, March 4, 2025; House Majority Leader Steve Scalise looks on at right. Photo: AP / Win McNamee (pool), via The Press Democrat.

Nancy Mace photographs herself on her phone as President Trump leaves the House chamber after his March 4, 2025 joint address

Mace photographs herself as Trump leaves the House chamber after the same address, March 4, 2025. Photo: Ricky Carioti / The Washington Post via Getty Images.

The Epstein files and the final snub (2026)

The courtship did not land the endorsement. After Mace joined a bipartisan discharge petition to force the release of Justice Department files related to Jeffrey Epstein in 2025, she publicly acknowledged the move had put Trump's support "on the line."

On May 29, 2026, Trump endorsed Lt. Gov. Pam Evette for governor, praising her as the candidate who "never wavered, never let me down, and was the only South Carolina Gubernatorial Candidate to Endorse me as soon as I launched my 2024 Presidential Campaign," and giving her his "Complete and Total Endorsement." He did not name Mace.

Mace did not take the snub quietly. She tied it to her Epstein vote, writing that "if sacrificing my values is the price of an endorsement, I will never pay it," and posting, "I voted to release the Epstein files. NO REGRETS." Of Trump's choice she said simply, "I think he got this one wrong," while insisting her respect for him was "genuine and it is unchanged." Heading into the primary she vowed it was "a dog fight … and I'm gonna fight to the death."

The AI photos and the CNN confrontation (2026)

The reaction also produced one of the stranger episodes of the campaign. On the morning of May 29, 2026, hours before Trump's Evette endorsement posted, Mace shared on X an image-and-video set depicting herself and Trump side by side, smiling and giving a thumbs-up, under a caption declaring that Evette was "NOT ENDORSED by DONALD TRUMP." X Community Notes flagged the post on two counts: that Trump had in fact endorsed Evette that same day, and that the imagery was AI-generated. Mediaite wrote that the post "aged like milk in a sauna."

Pam Evette is NOT ENDORSED by DONALD TRUMP. Do not believe her LIES
Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) May 29, 2026

Mace's May 29, 2026 post, flagged by X Community Notes as containing AI-generated images of her with Trump.

The episode drew added scrutiny because Mace had positioned herself as a champion of legislation against synthetic media: in May 2025 she had celebrated Trump signing the TAKE IT DOWN Act, posting that "with the rise of AI and deepfake abuse, women and children have been left vulnerable for too long." It was also not her first AI post, in November 2025 she had circulated an AI-generated video of her own, echoing one Trump had shared. In the days after the snub she posted at least one further thumbs-up image with Trump (June 1), captioned that she was "the only candidate running for Governor who worked for President Trump and helped get him elected in South Carolina in 2016." (See The fake AI Trump photos.)

On June 7, 2026, CNN's Dana Bash pressed Mace about the images on State of the Union. Bash noted that Mace's photos appeared to be AI and that she had "disclosed that." Mace did not dispute it, and pivoted to her opponent:

Bash: "You still put up pictures … of you with the president. I think yours was AI. And you disclosed that."

Mace: "I have pictures with the president that are real, like that's not AI. But my opponent, Pam Evette, has put out fake AI videos of me, which is sort of scary to see that happening."

She added, "If you have to use crazy fake videos and make up the wildest things about your opponent, that says a lot more about your character than it ever will about mine," and said she had "approached this election with the highest integrity." Her insistence that she had real photos with Trump was, on its face, true, they exist, from his March 2025 address to Congress (above); the controversy was that the images she chose to post after the snub were not.

It was not enough. On June 9, 2026, Mace finished last in the five-way Republican gubernatorial primary and did not advance to the June 23 runoff between Evette and Attorney General Alan Wilson. She conceded the same night and endorsed Wilson. In her concession she returned to the Epstein vote: "I voted to release the Epstein files and lost some support for that. As a survivor, I chose to stand on principle … And apparently, I chose wrong if the goal was winning an election."