January 6 & the Trump Relationship
Mace's statements condemning the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, and her subsequent pivot to endorsing Donald Trump, form one of the most documented reversals in her public record.
Mace publicly condemning the perpetrators of the January 6 Capitol riot shortly after the attack. (Source: Rep. Mace's official "Interviews with Nancy," via YouTube.)
On January 6, 2021, Nancy Mace was in the Capitol complex when a mob attacked the building. In the days that followed, she issued a series of statements calling rioters "domestic terrorists," saying Trump's legacy had been "wiped out," and calling on the president to "get off Twitter." She said publicly that lives had been put at risk and that Trump should be held accountable. She voted against impeachment but framed her opposition in procedural terms, not as a defense of Trump's conduct.
Over the following months and years, Mace moved from open critic to full endorser. By January 2024 she had announced support for Trump in the 2024 presidential primary over Nikki Haley, despite having once called that race "a complete shit show", and she spoke at rallies on his behalf. She later described him as the "only man who can save America." Supporters of Mace characterize this as appropriate pragmatism; critics describe it as a reversal. Mace has not retracted her January 2021 statements, but she has not repeated their substance since.
The dispatches under this topic are drawn from Mace's own public statements on each date listed. They include her own words from each period, allowing readers to compare them directly.
On the Record
'It hasn't happened yet, has it?': Mace, smiling, calls out Trump's broken 50 percent electricity promise on camera
Stopped outside the Capitol by a MeidasTouch reporter and asked what her constituents are saying about affordability, Rep. Nancy Mace rattled off rising groceries, electricity, mortgages and rent, then finished the reporter's sentence about President Trump's pledge to cut power bills: 'By 50 percent. It hasn't happened yet, has it?' She smiled and turned away. The clip, posted July 22, 2026 and shared across X by @Acyn, landed two days after Trump's own self-imposed deadline to halve electricity prices passed with residential rates up about 18 percent instead.
One day after quitting the race, Nancy Mace endorses Ralph Norman and snubs Trump's pick for Graham's Senate seat
One day after ruling out her own Senate bid, Rep. Nancy Mace endorsed Rep. Ralph Norman for the South Carolina special election on July 21, 2026, breaking publicly with President Trump, who had endorsed Lindsey Graham's sister Darline Graham Nordone on July 17. Norman accepted the endorsement while pledging to 'stand with President Trump,' the same president whose candidate he and Mace are now both running against. Filing opens today and closes July 28, with the primary set for August 11.
"I'm not chasing another title, I'm chasing justice": Nancy Mace rules out the Senate race, and with it, public office
On July 20, 2026, Rep. Nancy Mace announced in a 64-second video on X that she will not enter the special election for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham's Senate seat. 'I want to be straight with you. I'm not running for the US Senate, not because I'm backing down from a fight, but because the one I'm already in matters right now.' The announcement came three days after President Trump endorsed Graham's sister, interim Sen. Darline Graham Nordone, for the full term. Combined with her June 10 decision not to seek re-election to the House, Mace is now set to leave public office when her term ends in January 2027. This dispatch reproduces the video statement in full, verbatim, alongside the separate written statement she posted with it.
Trump endorses Lindsey Graham's sister for a full Senate term, and puts Nancy Mace's decision in a harder box
President Trump endorsed Sen. Darline Graham Nordone for a full six-year term on July 17, 2026, the same day Axios reported that Rep. Nancy Mace is still considering a Senate bid despite the endorsement. The move closes the appointment lane Mace had been eyeing and forces a choice: run against Trump's chosen candidate in a primary where she trails at 10 percent, or stand down. This dispatch catalogs the full timeline, from Mace's 'I would be an idiot not to at least look at it' media tour on July 12, to her team's viability polling, to the Emerson poll showing her tied for third at 10 percent, to Trump's endorsement of Graham's sister.
"If you import the third world, you will become the third world": Mace's Third World Immigration Moratorium Act
On July 15, 2026, four days after Lindsey Graham's death and as she weighs a run for his Senate seat, Nancy Mace introduced the Third World Immigration Moratorium Act, a bill that would bar entry of aliens from 39 designated countries plus holders of Palestinian Authority travel documents, codifying President Trump's travel-ban proclamation into permanent statute. Her press release framed it as moving to 'slam the door,' and her own words went further: 'If you import the third world, you will become the third world.' This dispatch catalogs the bill, the full country list, its exceptions, and Mace's verbatim statements from her office's announcement.
Townhall says Mace is 'already talking' about taking over Graham's Senate seat
Within hours of Sen. Lindsey Graham's death, Nancy Mace was already publicly and privately linked to the scramble for his Senate seat. Axios reported she was 'strongly considering' a run. Fox aired her saying she would 'be an idiot' not to look at the opportunity. Then Mace posted a Godfather clip with the line, 'Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in...' Townhall, writing from conservative media, framed the speed more harshly: 'Just hours after' Graham's passing, 'vultures' in South Carolina politics were already scheming for the empty seat.
Trump allies say they can 'block Rep. Nancy Mace' from Graham seat appointment
As Nancy Mace's team explored a fast run for the Senate seat left open by Lindsey Graham's death, the sharper signal came from Trump's orbit. Politico reporter Meredith Lee Hill posted that Trump allies said they would be able to 'block Rep. Nancy Mace' from the seat, while Political Wire's excerpt framed it as blocking her from the appointment and privately pointed to her public clashes with Trump. The report landed the same morning Trump said on Meet the Press that he already had 'somebody' in mind for the vacancy, though Gov. Henry McMaster formally controls the interim appointment.
Palmetto Voice ties Mace's foreign-born judge attack to the naturalized-citizens lane
The Palmetto Voice argued that Mace's attack on a foreign-born federal judge after her fifth-place governor primary finish fits a broader pattern that includes her natural-born-only constitutional amendment, criticism of Rom Reddy, and her Trump/Epstein conflict. The outlet's 'defeated and spiraling' frame is commentary, not a Maceopedia finding.
Trump endorses both SC runoff candidates: 'These were the two that I was hoping would get into a Runoff'
On June 19, 2026, four days before the June 23 South Carolina Republican gubernatorial runoff, President Trump posted on Truth Social that rather than choose between the two candidates still standing, Lt. Gov. Pam Evette and Attorney General Alan Wilson, he would endorse both. He wrote that 'these were the two that I was hoping would get into a Runoff, and they did.' Neither is Nancy Mace, who finished fifth (about 12.1 percent) in the June 9 primary and has said her vote to release the Epstein files cost her Trump's support. The Washington Post had reported on June 16 that Trump was weighing exactly this dual endorsement. Post & Courier reporter Caitlin Byrd surfaced the post.
"Getting my ass kicked": Mace's post-loss X tear, from beans to vowing "revenge" on Trump
After finishing fifth (~12.1%) in the June 9, 2026 South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary, Mace posted a days-long run of defiant messages on X that outlets including Townhall, The Blaze and HuffPost described as a 'crash out.' She wrote she was 'getting my ass kicked,' posted a bowl of beans, vowed to be 'more of a menace than ever,' and said that the answer to whether she would get 'revenge on Trump for ending your political career' was 'yes.'
'Buried the hatchet': after finishing fifth, Mace concedes the governor's race and endorses Alan Wilson, the rival she spent months branding a 'p*dophile protector'
On the night of June 9, 2026, after finishing fifth in the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary with about 11.4% of the vote, Nancy Mace conceded and endorsed the man who advanced to the June 23 runoff, Attorney General Alan Wilson. 'I want a law-and-order governor, and that law-and-order governor is going to be Alan Wilson,' she told supporters, saying that 'in the last couple of weeks, Alan Wilson and I have buried the hatchet.' The endorsement reversed a year of attacks: as recently as November 3, 2025 she had called Wilson a 'p*dophile protector' on X. Wilson has rejected those attacks, his office said Mace 'drastically mischaracterized' prosecution data, and nothing in the exchange is a finding about either man's conduct.
'Ding dong the witch is gone': Nikki Haley's son toasts Mace's defeat, four years after his mother's ads helped save her seat
Minutes after Nancy Mace conceded her fifth-place finish in the June 9, 2026 South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary, Nalin Haley, the son of former governor and U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, quote-tweeted her concession with 'DING DONG THE WITCH IS GONE!,' then added 'Free at last, free at last.' The jab capped a four-year arc: in 2022 Nikki Haley cut TV ads calling Mace 'tough as nails' and 'a fighter' and helped her beat a Trump-backed primary challenger; in January 2024 Mace repaid her by endorsing Donald Trump over Haley, in Haley's home state, the day before the New Hampshire primary. The Haley camp had spent election day boosting Mace's rivals.
Mace concedes fifth place: "I voted to release the Epstein files and lost some support for that"
On June 9, 2026, after finishing fifth with roughly 12.1 percent of the vote in the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary, Mace said she lost support because of her vote to release the Epstein files and called it a choice made on principle.
Mace on CNN: releasing the Epstein files was "a price I am unwilling to pay" for an endorsement
On CNN on June 7, 2026, days before the South Carolina governor primary, Mace said that if Trump's endorsement required her not to vote to release the Epstein files, it was "a price I am unwilling to pay."
After Trump endorses Pam Evette over her for governor, Mace floods X for days, a Farron Balanced commentary dubs the response a 'crash out'
On May 29, 2026, President Trump endorsed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette over Nancy Mace in the South Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary. In the days that followed, Mace posted repeatedly on X defending her congressional record and attacking Evette. In a June 3, 2026 commentary video, progressive host Farron Cousins (Farron Balanced) characterized the response as a multi-day 'crash out' and read a post he attributed to GOP consultant Justin Evans calling it someone losing 'touch with reality in real time.' The 'crash out' and mental-health framing in the video are the commentator's opinion; Maceopedia does not adopt them. Mace attributes her troubles to her vote to release the Epstein files.
"NO REGRETS": Trump endorses Evette over Mace; Mace ties the snub to her Epstein vote
On May 29, 2026, President Trump endorsed Mace's primary rival Pam Evette for South Carolina governor. Mace responded on X with "NO REGRETS," directly linking the endorsement snub to her vote to release the Epstein files.
Mace commends Melania Trump for advocating for Epstein survivors
On April 9, 2026, Mace publicly commended First Lady Melania Trump for her advocacy on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein survivors, a notable alignment with the Trump family even as Mace continued fighting the Justice Department over file releases.
Mace after Bondi's firing: "She has stonewalled every effort to hold the guilty accountable"
On April 2, 2026, the day President Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, Mace issued a statement accusing Bondi of handling the Epstein files in a "terrible manner" and stonewalling the committee's accountability efforts.
'President Trump has won the war, time to exit': Mace breaks with Trump on Iran and signals she'll vote with Democrats
On March 26, 2026, Rep. Nancy Mace told Axios that 'War with Iran needs to end. President Trump has won the war, time to exit,' and signaled she would 'most likely' vote with House Democrats on the next war powers resolution constraining the Iran war. She told Axios by text she was 'not voting to send South Carolina's sons and daughters into battle to die for the price of oil,' and warned on CNN that continuing the war could cost Republicans in the midterms. Political Wire summed the day up as 'Trump Loses Nancy Mace on the Iran War.'
'Another Iraq': Mace walks out of a classified Iran briefing and tells Trump to take Lindsey Graham 'out of the Situation Room'
On March 25, 2026, Rep. Nancy Mace walked out of a classified House Armed Services Committee briefing on the Iran war and posted that she 'will not support troops on the ground in Iran, even more so after this briefing,' warning that 'the Washington War Machine' wanted to turn Iran into 'another Iraq.' The same week she demanded that President Trump remove Sen. Lindsey Graham 'from the Situation Room,' first on X and then on CNN. The posture put her against the Iran-hawk wing of her own party even as she continued to praise Trump.
Anonymous White House officials blast Mace's Israel rescue missions as 'political gain'; Mace says she kept State informed throughout
The Guardian reported on March 18, 2026, picked up by Raw Story and WTOC, that unnamed Trump White House and State Department officials were furious at Rep. Nancy Mace over her two evacuation trips to Israel. The anonymous officials alleged she contacted the Saudi government without notifying State, asked the administration to requisition a Saudi plane for ~300 people, and urged Americans toward Jordan without secured onward travel. Mace's office said she kept State informed and that State approved the DHS plane. The dispute is unresolved and every government critic spoke anonymously.
Mace defies Trump pressure: "I was one of four Republicans" to sign the Epstein petition
On November 13, 2025, Mace publicly confirmed she had signed the discharge petition to force release of the Epstein files, standing firm after Trump pressured Republican signers to back down.
Mace launches governor campaign declaring 'I am Trump in high heels' and vowing to 'burn it down to the ground'
At a Myrtle Beach town hall on August 6, 2025, Mace officially launched her South Carolina gubernatorial campaign by vowing to burn down what is broken in the state and calling herself 'Trump in high heels.'
'No sleep, no problem. Pink pajamas and all': Mace livestreams an overnight pajama road trip to the 'Big, Beautiful Bill' vote
With her flights to Washington canceled, Rep. Nancy Mace hired a van and drove overnight from Charleston to the Capitol in pink polka-dot pajamas, posting the whole way under the banner 'One Big Beautiful Girl's Road Trip.' She stopped at a Wawa (AC/DC, 'If D.C. had a theme song') and a Waffle House, and arrived July 2, 2025 with the line: 'No sleep, no problem. Pink pajamas and all, we're here to pass @POTUS's Big, Beautiful Bill.' The House passed the bill the next day.
Asked on CNN to call Trump's "she turned Black" attack on Kamala Harris out of bounds, Mace says: "I didn't say it, and I would not say it"
On CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip on August 15, 2024, the panel pressed Rep. Nancy Mace again and again to simply say that Donald Trump's claim that Vice President Kamala Harris "turned Black" was out of bounds. Mace would not. "I didn't hear him say it," she said, then "I am not going to weigh in on her race," then "I didn't say it, and I would not say it." Host Abby Phillip: "This doesn't take that much courage, honestly, to just say that was out of bounds." In the same appearance Mace insisted she would say Harris's name "any way that I want to." The clip, posted by Acyn, was captioned "one of the most embarrassing moments I have ever seen from Nancy Mace."
Mace defends flip to endorsing Trump: 'We've had three-and-a-half years of Joe Biden now, and it's pretty easy'
Appearing on NewsNation on June 2, 2024, Mace defended her decision to endorse Donald Trump after years of publicly criticizing him following January 6.
Mace calls assassination hypothetical 'asinine,' pivots to 'How much did Bill Clinton pay off the women?'
In the same April 28, 2024 NPR interview, Mace dismissed the Supreme Court's presidential immunity assassination hypothetical as asinine, then deflected questions about the Stormy Daniels hush-money trial with a rhetorical question about Bill Clinton that NPR's fact-check addressed.
Mace calls NPR interview 'clickbait' and accuses host of being 'leftists in the media'
On April 28, 2024, during a live NPR interview about Trump's criminal trial and Supreme Court immunity arguments, Mace accused host Ayesha Rascoe of bias and called the interview 'clickbait for NPR'; NPR ran a fact-check of her statements in the same broadcast.
Mace to Stephanopoulos: 'I live with shame'
On March 10, 2024, Mace pushed back at George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week after he pressed her on endorsing Trump given her public history as a rape survivor.
Mace endorses Trump: 'Donald Trump is the only man who can save America'
On February 2, 2024, Mace endorsed Donald Trump over fellow South Carolinian Nikki Haley ahead of the state's Republican primary.
Mace endorses Trump over Haley: 'It's been a complete shit show since he left the White House'
On January 22, 2024, Mace endorsed Donald Trump over Nikki Haley, who lives in Mace's own congressional district and had backed her in 2022, the day before the New Hampshire primary, reversing her post-January 6 declaration that Trump had no future in the GOP.
Mace on Trump indictment: 'Joe Biden just secured Donald Trump's nomination for Republicans in 2024'
On June 9, 2023, Mace went on Fox News to denounce the federal indictment of Trump on classified documents charges as politically motivated, predicting it would secure Trump's 2024 Republican nomination, reversing her post-January 6 calls for accountability.
Mace boasts on Fox News she has been 'living rent-free' in AOC's Twitter account
On February 8, 2021, Mace appeared on Fox News to gloat about her social-media feud with AOC over the January 6 Capitol attack, framing her challenge to AOC's trauma account as a winning political play.
Mace tells AOC 'I deal in facts. Unlike you, apparently.', then fundraises off the feud
On February 4, 2021, Mace attacked AOC's credibility over her January 6 account on Twitter, then sent a fundraising email the same day using the same line as a solicitation.
Mace calls MTG committee removal 'unprecedented', weeks after warning QAnon was leading the GOP
On February 4, 2021, Mace defended Marjorie Taylor Greene from being stripped of her committee assignments, weeks after warning that QAnon conspiracy theorists were leading the Republican Party toward a constitutional crisis.
Mace tweets 'Insurrectionists never stormed our hallway' to undercut AOC's Capitol trauma account
On February 3, 2021, Mace publicly disputed AOC's account of fearing for her life on January 6, despite Mace herself having reportedly told reporters she barricaded in her own office out of fear that day.
Mace asks on Meet the Press: 'how do we hold a president accountable that put all of our lives at risk?'
Eleven days after the Capitol attack, Mace appeared on NBC's Meet the Press and questioned how Congress could hold the president accountable for the January 6 riot.
Mace invokes 'both sides' on Capitol attack while voting against impeachment
On the day of the second impeachment vote, Mace drew moral equivalence between the Capitol attack and months of left-wing unrest on the House floor, then voted against impeachment.
Mace warned 'QAnon conspiracy theorists' were leading the GOP, then voted to oust Liz Cheney months later
On January 13, 2021, Mace defended Liz Cheney from removal by warning that QAnon conspiracy theorists were leading the party; by May 2021 she reversed course and voted to oust Cheney from leadership.
Mace cites due-process concerns to justify 'no' vote on impeachment after condemning Trump
On January 13, 2021, Mace publicly condemned Trump for the Capitol attack and then used procedural objections about the speed of the impeachment process to justify voting against it.
Mace says on Fox News she does not know 'how you go forward and defend the indefensible' and Trump has no future in the GOP
One week after the Capitol attack, Mace told Fox News that Trump had no future in the Republican Party and that his principles would have to be championed without his name or brand.
Mace tweets Capitol rioters were 'domestic terrorists' and calls on GOP to stop 'coddling extremists'
Four days after the January 6 Capitol attack, Mace posted on Twitter that the rioters who assaulted police were domestic terrorists and urged her party to rebuild around respect for rule of law.
Mace in GOP group chat: 'I'm disgusted by what you and other Q-conspiracy theorists did'
On January 8, 2021, in a leaked GOP freshmen group chat published by Politico, Mace directed sharp criticism at colleagues she linked to QAnon in the immediate aftermath of the January 6 Capitol attack.
Mace says Trump's legacy 'entirely wiped out' the day after the Capitol attack
The day after the January 6 Capitol attack, Mace told a local TV station that the riot had erased everything Republicans had accomplished under President Trump.
Mace tells CBS News while sheltering during Capitol breach: 'I'm begging the president to get off Twitter'
While sheltering in place during the January 6 Capitol breach, Mace told CBS News she was begging President Trump to stop posting on Twitter.
Sheltering in the Capitol on Jan. 6, Mace says 'This is not who we are'
As rioters breached the Capitol, Mace posted from her locked-down office that protesters assaulting Capitol Police was 'wrong' and that she was 'heartbroken for our nation.'