You know the mess that needs cleaning up is a big one when they skip the official Mike Pence campaign press release contradicting Trump and opt for the official Mike Pence live phone interview contradicting Trump instead.

I’m sure Pence’s endorsement is heartfelt, not just damage control. He and Ryan are old friends from their time together in the House and Ryan praised him effusively after Trump put him on the ticket. There’s no reason to doubt that he’s on the level here about supporting him. There, ah, is reason to doubt that he’s doing so at Trump’s behest, unless Trump himself is suddenly so worried about Republicans rebelling over his non-endorsement of Ryan yesterday that he sent Pence out there to make amends. That’s hard to believe, though: Trump fans keep telling me that Ryan is a globalist parasite who’s headed for a shocking upset loss to Trump supporter Paul Nehlen on Tuesday. Surely Trump wouldn’t betray them and try to pull the rug out from under Nehlen by sending his number two out there to endorse Ryan.

You want high drama? Having Trump’s running mate show up in Ryan’s district this weekend to campaign for him before the primary when nationalists are salivating at the chance to take Ryan down would be high drama. I doubt Pence will end up doing it, but we’ll see. Depending on how angry Reince and the rest of the donor class are at Trump, he might have no choice but to send Pence out there to be a team player for Ryan as a goodwill gesture.

By the way, here’s a brief summary of what Pence has been up to the past week:

https://twitter.com/BenjySarlin/status/760894874472374272

He’s like Bizarro Trump. This guy knows who his running mate is, right?

https://twitter.com/AndrewKirell/status/760890713357836292