At 2:30 pm, after the rioters had breached the capitol, Trump tweeted “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to defend the country and the constitution.”
Trump surely knew that rioters had stormed the capitol, and that Mike Pence was in the building to convene the Senate.
What was his first instinct? Should he tweet “Get out of the Capitol my crazy supporters, you’re tarnishing my movement?” No, he used the moment to tweet his frustration at Mike Pence doing his constitutional duty.
He tried to get Pence killed. Indeed, the rioters in the capitol immediately took up chants like “Find Mike Pence!” and even “Hang Mike Pence!” Police shot one rioter rather than let her breach a particular corridor – I wonder who they were protecting down that corridor. It could have been Mike Pence.