He’s scheduled to embark on a bus tour through Michigan on Tuesday without the president, who’s in India. It will include a speech to supporters in a hotel ballroom — a sort of mini-rally.

People in and around the White House believe it’s a foregone conclusion that Pence will seek to succeed Trump. But he hasn’t firmly decided, and his nomination, let alone his election, are much less certain…

During a trip to South Carolina earlier this month — a state that’s considered safe for Trump in 2020 — Pence met privately with Walter Whetsell, a political consultant he knows from his time in Congress, said a person familiar with the matter. Whetsell couldn’t be reached for comment.

Pence’s remarks introducing the president at a rally in Las Vegas on Friday were littered with nods toward Trump slogans — “Make America Great Again,” “Keep America Great,” and “Build That Wall.” But he also repeatedly used a word uncommon to Trump: “faith.”