Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a new interview that he’s not ruling out accepting a White House position if former President Donald Trump is reelected in November.
When asked during a Fox News interview if he would work for President Trump again, Mr. Pompeo said that “if I get a chance to serve and think that I can make a difference … I’m almost certainly going to say yes to that opportunity to try and deliver on behalf of the American people.”
“I’m confident President Trump will be looking for people who will faithfully execute what it is he asked them to do,” he added in the interview, which aired on March 8. “I think as a president, you should always want that from everyone.”
He added that as a former secretary of state, “I certainly wanted my team to do what I was asking them to do and was enormously frustrated when I found that I couldn’t get them to do that.”
Mr. Pompeo, a former U.S. House representative from Kansas, first served as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) under the Trump administration from 2017 to 2018 before he was secretary of state from 2018 to 2021. After he left office, there was speculation that he could mount a Republican presidential bid in 2024 before he announced that he wouldn’t be running.
President Trump has not publicly commented on Mr. Pompeo’s remarks to Fox News.
In 2023, Mr. Pompeo took a swipe at his former boss amid rumors Mr. Pompeo would be running for president, telling Fox News at the time that “the Trump administration spent $6 trillion more than it took in, adding to the deficit.”
“That’s never the right direction for the country,” Mr. Pompeo added.
In a public appearance last year, he also appeared to take a shot at the 45 president by criticizing “celebrity leaders” when urging Republicans voters to choose ahead of the 2024 election.
2024 Race
It comes as the former president was named the “presumptive nominee” by the Republican National Committee (RNC) last week after his last major Republican challenger, Nikki Haley, dropped out of the 2024 race after failing to secure enough delegates. President Trump won 14 out of 15 states, with only Vermont—which notably has an open primary—going for Ms. Haley, who also served as President Trump’s U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
On March 8, the RNC held a meeting in Houston during which committee members voted in favor of President Trump’s nomination.
“Congratulations to President Donald J. Trump on his huge primary victory!” the organization said in the statement last week. “I’d also like to congratulate Nikki Haley for running a hard-fought campaign and becoming the first woman to win a Republican presidential contest.”
Earlier this year, the former president criticized the idea of being named the presumptive nominee after reports suggested that the RNC would do so before the Super Tuesday contests and while Ms. Haley was still in the race.
Also March 8, the RNC voted to name Trump-endorsed officials to head the organization. Michael Whatley, a North Carolina Republican, was elected the party’s new national chairman in a vote Friday morning in Houston, and Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, was voted in as co-chair.
“The RNC is going to be the vanguard of a movement that will work tirelessly every single day to elect our nominee, Donald J. Trump, as the 47th President of the United States,” Mr. Whatley told RNC members in a speech after being elected, replacing former chair Ronna McDaniel. Ms. Trump is expected to focus largely on fundraising and media appearances.
As for President Trump, he has not signaled who he will appoint to various federal agencies if he is reelected in November. He has also not made his pick for vice president, but has offered several suggestions in recent interviews.
In various interviews, the former president has mentioned Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Vivek Ramaswamy, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, among otheres.
From The Epoch Times
