President Donald Trump mocked his vice president’s religious beliefs and social conservatism, according to a report published on Monday – jokingly telling a legal scholar during a White House discussion on gay rights that Mike Pence “wants to hang them all.”

Mr Trump’s critics are longing for his removal from office – and nine out of Mr Pence’s 47 predecessors have gone on to become president. But the magazine paints a picture of a calculating and extremely conservative politician backed by a powerful network of donors, who would likely take America even further to the Right that Mr Trump.

On Monday Mr Trump was at pains to put on a show of unity with the “establishment” wing of the Republican Party, which Mr Pence represents. The president had lunch with Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republicans in the senate, who he has repeatedly berated on Twitter, and then professed himself to be “closer than ever before” to Mr McConnell.