--- title: Presidential Debate: Donald Trump Disagrees With Mike Pence description: Donald Trump during the debate openly disagreed with his running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, over the U.S.'s policy in Syria canonical: https://time.com/4524449/presidential-debate-donald-trump-mike-pence-syria/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-10T03:35:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:30.450Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Openly Disagreed With His Running Mate on Russia og:description: At the debate Sunday og:url: https://time.com/4524449/presidential-debate-donald-trump-mike-pence-syria/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2223ad7b7668e442/6988a950428a9e3de8cd4907/donald-trimp-debate-wide.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Openly Disagreed With His Running Mate on Russia twitter:description: At the debate Sunday twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2223ad7b7668e442/6988a950428a9e3de8cd4907/donald-trimp-debate-wide.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Openly Disagreed With His Running Mate on Russia by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Oct 10, 2016 3:35 AM UTC  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump listens during the second presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis on Oct. 9, 2016. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump listens during the second presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis on Oct. 9, 2016.Scott Olson—Getty Images by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Oct 10, 2016 3:35 AM UTC Donald Trump during the second presidential debate openly disagreed with his running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, over the U.S.’s policy in Syria. The difference in policy became apparent when moderator Martha Raddatz stated Pence’s position when asking Trump repeatedly about his views over solving the humanitarian crisis in Syria. “I want to remind you of what your running mate said,” said Raddatz. “He said provocations by Russia need to be met with American strength and that if Russia continues to be involved in airstrikes along with the Syrian forces of Assad, the United States should be prepared to use military force to strike military targets of the Assad regime.” Trump said he disagreed with his running mate. “He and I haven’t spoken, and I disagree,” Trump said. It is nearly unprecedented for disagreements between running mates to become so public during a presidential election. Trump and Pence have numerous disagreements in policy, including over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (Trump opposes it, Pence has said in the past he supports it), immigration (Trump has called for a deportation force to deport all undocumented immigrants, Pence has not), among others. But in the past, Pence has denied the two have differences, saying in the vice-presidential debate, “There’s no daylight between Donald Trump and I on that or any other issue,” referring to Syria. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4524449/presidential-debate-donald-trump-mike-pence-syria/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4524449/presidential-debate-donald-trump-mike-pence-syria/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Openly Disagreed With His Running Mate on Russia","datePublished":"2016-10-10T03:35:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:30.450Z","description":"Donald Trump during the debate openly disagreed with his running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, over the U.S.'s policy in Syria","url":"https://time.com/4524449/presidential-debate-donald-trump-mike-pence-syria/","keywords":["Debates","Hillary Clinton","russia","2016 Election","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2223ad7b7668e442/6988a950428a9e3de8cd4907/donald-trimp-debate-wide.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2223ad7b7668e442/6988a950428a9e3de8cd4907/donald-trimp-debate-wide.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL","caption":"Candidates Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump Hold Second Presidential Debate At Washington University","creditText":"Scott Olson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4524449/presidential-debate-donald-trump-mike-pence-syria/","name":"Donald Trump Openly Disagreed With His Running Mate on Russia"}}]}] ```