In a tense final phone conversation with Mike Pence before the notorious January 6th events at Capitol Hill, Donald Trump reportedly told his vice president he would be remembered as a “wimp.”

This revelation is part of Jonathan Karl’s forthcoming book, “Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America,” which delves into the tumultuous dynamics and internal conflicts within Trump’s administration.

Karl’s book features Pence’s handwritten notes from that pivotal day in 2021, capturing a call between the two just an hour before Trump addressed the ‘Save America’ rally, preceding the riot.

The notes, previously unseen, reveal Trump’s last-ditch effort to persuade Pence not to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 Presidential Election.

After Pence stood his ground, Trump allegedly made the memorable remark, which Pence documented.

“You’ll go down as a wimp,” Trump is reported to have said, adding, “If you do that, I made a big mistake five years ago.”

Following the call, Trump spoke at the rally and two hours and 15 minutes after his speech, supporters had begun to storm the Capitol. 

‘I know that everyone over here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. Today, we will see whether Republicans stand strong for integrity of our elections,’ Trump told his followers.

Mike Pence (pictured right) refused to overturn the 2020 Presidential Election results in one final call with Donald Trump (pictured left) before his speech on January 6, 2021

The call took place just hours prior to the riot at the Capitol and immediately before Trump’s speech at his ‘Save America’ rally

Trump expressed aggravation with Pence’s advisors which the vice president represents with a drawing of an angry faced emoji, the notes claim. 

‘You listen to the wrong people. You’re not protecting our country, you’re supposed to support + defend our country,’ said Trump, according to Pence’s dictation.

Per Pence’s notes, he told Trump: ‘I said we both [took] an oath to support + defend the Constitution. It doesn’t take courage to break the law. It takes courage to uphold the law.’

The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House for comment. 

Pence had previously detailed this call in his memoir, So Help Me God, in which he details it as taking place at around 11am, when Trump was slated to speak. 

The House January 6 committee also released testimony in 2022 of a White House official saying that Trump called Pence a ‘wimp.’

Trump denied ever saying that at a gathering of religious conservatives in Nashville around the time the story broke. 

‘I never called him a wimp. Mike Pence had a chance to be great.’

Pence took handwritten notes of what happened that day which were slated to be used during Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the president

‘He had a chance to be frankly historic.

‘But just like Bill Barr and the rest of these weak people, Mike – and I say it sadly because I liked them – but Mike did not have the courage to act.’

‘Mike was afraid of whatever he was afraid of,’ added Trump.

‘But as you heard a year and a half ago, Mike Pence had absolutely no choice but to be a human conveyor belt, even if the votes were fraudulent. 

‘They said he had to send the votes, couldn’t do anything.’

The notes taken by Pence were meant to be used as evidence by Special Counsel Jack Smith to prove Trump lied to his supporters to try and overturn the election.

However, the notes became useless to Smith, as his cases against Trump were dismissed when the president won in 2024.  

The president has maintained his belief that the 2020 race was rigged against him long after the events of January 6.

Following the call, Trump spoke at the rally and two hours and 15 minutes after his speech, supporters had begun to storm the Capitol

Trump’s call to Pence was a last minute effort to get the vice president to overturn the election, just ahead of his speech near the White House on January 6

Thousands of people gathered at the ‘Save America’ rally to demand both Pence and Congress reject Biden’s victory.  

During his speech at the Ellipse near the White House, Trump said: ‘If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.’

Following Trump’s speech, hundreds of MAGA fans brazenly broke into the building, they were seen hunting out Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and new Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to voice their anger at Trump’s loss and attempt to force them to overturn the election.

The photos of supporters climbing the walls of the Capitol and breaking in have since become infamous. 

At least five deaths came as a result of the insurrection, four of them rallygoers, as well as a Capitol Police Officer who died of a stroke. 

Trump’s supporters turned Pence into the villain of that day. 

Jim Bourg, the Reuters News Pictures Editor in D.C. who was covering the riot, has claimed he heard at least three Trump supporters speak about hanging Pence from a tree as a ‘traitor’.

Bourg tweeted on Friday that he heard ‘many more’ speak about executing Pence as they stormed the Capitol and tried to hunt him down. 

A noose is seen on makeshift gallows as supporters of President Trump stormed on the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. A Reuters’ photographer covering the riot claimed he heard at least three Trump supporters speak about hanging VP Mike Pence from a tree as a ‘traitor’

Karl’s book has mostly stuck to juicy details of the 2024 race and Trump’s early second term. 

He claimed that Usha Vance, wife of Vice President JD Vance, was consulted on a high-stakes minerals deal that was in the works with Ukraine in February of this year.

During the discussion of the deal between Vance and Trump, questions were raised about whether or not the proposal had gone through proper legal vetting.

Karl writes that Vance noted, ‘I can have Usha take a look at it,’ per Politico, which reviewed excerpts of the book. 

Karl adds of the minerals deal scene, ‘And with that, the vice president asked the Second Lady of the United States—who, like Steve Bannon, had no role whatsoever on the National Security Council—to come over to the West Wing and review a bilateral agreement that was supposed to be signed the next day.’ 

Eventually, the mineral deal did not come to fruition after a disastrous visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Oval Office, during which he sparred with the Vice President. 

Karl, who is also the ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent, also revealed accusations that Trump chose Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security to reward her lover Corey Lewandowski.

Trump decided Noem should run DHS not because of her competency, but rather as a favor to his longtime unofficial adviser and first Republican campaign manager.

Lewandowski, a controversial figure who casts a daunting shadow over DHS, has been on the outskirts of Trump’s inner circle ever since he was fired from running the 2016 campaign at the behest of Jared and Ivanka Kushner.

Despite the setbacks, the political operative has stuck around the Trump world via his close relationship with Noem, who has been nicknamed ‘ICE Barbie’ for her appearances with agents out in the field.