What were the major public clashes between Donald Trump and Dick Cheney after 2016?

1. A feud that mixed policy critique with personal denunciation

Cheney’s objections to Trump crossed from policy differences into explicit personal warnings. The elder Cheney publicly criticized Trump’s post-2020 election conduct and Jan. 6 aftermath, calling Trump a “threat” and a “coward” and supporting actions by his daughter that scrutinized Trump’s role in the Capitol attack ^{[1] [6]}. Coverage frames Cheney’s stance as both moral and institutional: he argued the rule of law and constitutional duty over party loyalty ^{[3] [7]}.

2. The 2022 Liz Cheney campaign ad: father as political actor

One high-profile moment was Cheney appearing in a video ad backing Liz Cheney’s 2022 campaign, where he warned that no one posed a greater threat to the republic than Trump — an unusually stark indictment from a prominent Republican elder ^{[1] [2]}. News outlets cited that ad as a flashpoint, signaling that Cheney had moved from private critic to active opponent on the campaign trail ^[1].

3. The Jan. 6 investigations widened the rift

Liz Cheney’s vice‑chair role on the January 6 committee and her conclusion that the attack was an “attempted coup” sharpened the family’s opposition to Trump; reporting ties much of the personal animus to that probe and its political fallout, which led to Liz Cheney’s ouster from GOP leadership and later electoral defeat in Wyoming — events that kept tensions in public view ^{[6] [8]}.

4. Cheney’s 2024 vote for Kamala Harris: a partisan break with symbolic weight

Cheney’s public declaration that he would vote for Democratic vice president Kamala Harris in 2024 — and reporting that he intended to “put country above partisanship” — marked a formal cross‑party break that intensified the clash with Trump and his allies ^{[3] [4]}. Multiple outlets presented that choice as the culmination of Cheney’s long opposition to Trump’s actions after 2020 ^{[3] [6]}.

5. Trump’s responses: attacks, silence, and mutual exclusion

Trump’s reactions ranged from direct attacks on Liz Cheney to public silence about Dick Cheney himself. Coverage notes Trump repeatedly attacked Liz after her Jan. 6 role, and that by November 2025 Trump had not issued a public condolence for Cheney and was not invited to the funeral — an exclusion widely reported as a summation of the estrangement ^{[4] [6] [5]}. Reports also note Trump criticized Cheney’s foreign‑policy stances earlier in his career ^[9].

6. Interpretations differ: legacy of presidential power vs. moral rebuke

Analysts diverge on the relationship between the two men. Several outlets argue Cheney’s expansion of executive authority helped pave the institutional road that Trump later traveled — a structural connection that complicates a simple “opponent” label ^{[9] [10]}. Other coverage emphasizes Cheney’s later moral rebuke of Trump — that he saw Trump’s behavior as a unique threat to the republic and acted accordingly ^{[1] [3]}.

7. The funeral as a final public symbol of the split

Media coverage of Cheney’s Washington National Cathedral funeral framed Trump’s non‑invitation and absence as symbolic: former presidents from both parties attended while the sitting president was excluded, underscoring how personal enmity and institutional concerns about Jan. 6 reshaped traditional bipartisan rituals ^{[7] [5] [6]}. Reporters used the guest list and remarks — especially Liz Cheney’s eulogy — to highlight that Cheney’s late‑life stance on Trump was central to his public portrait in 2025 ^{[3] [11]}.

Limitations and gaps: The supplied reporting documents many public clashes and key moments, but available sources do not enumerate every exchange (for example, a comprehensive timeline of every public insult, interview, or tweet is not provided) and do not include verbatim transcripts for all cited remarks; each factual assertion above is tied to the cited stories ^{[1] [3] [4] [6] [5] [9] [10]}.