Journalist Tucker Carlson successfully lobbied President Donald Trump to keep his former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo out of his second administration, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Trump’s decision to ban Pompeo from his administration shows his willingness to trust non-traditional media sources and outside confidantes over established figures with experience in government.
Pompeo, a four-term congressman from Kansas, was first in his class at West Point and a graduate of Harvard Law University before joining the Trump administration in 2017 as director of the CIA.
Trump moved Pompeo to the State Department in 2018 after the disappointing tenure of former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, the president’s first choice to lead the department.
Carlson has long been a public critic of Pompeo, especially over his reported attempt to assassinate Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
“Mike Pompeo, a very sinister person, the worst, and I always thought that and I said that to Trump, should never have let him run the CIA or the state,” Carlson said in a podcast interview with TV Star Roseanne.
The story of Pompeo’s efforts in return for Assange was first reported by Yahoo News in 2021, based on “conversations with more than 30 former US officials.”
Carlson, who urged Trump to pardon Assange, continued to hammer Pompeo even after he left office.
“Mike Pompeo tried to have him killed,” Carlson said, adding, “Why isn’t Mike Pompeo in jail?”
Pompeo, Carlson reiterated, would repeatedly flatter Trump into trusting him and his foreign policy advice, which was that of a committed pro-war neoconservative.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wanted to return to work in Donald Trump’s administration
“Mike Pompeo, I’ve seen it up close, and I’ve seen it up close, is a liar and a sycophant,” he said.
Carlson also became wary of Pompeo after the former CIA director’s lawyers contacted him after he spoke on his Fox News show about the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
“I talked to someone who had seen the documents two years ago and I got one fact out of it: Yes, the CIA was involved,” Carlson said during a 2024 interview with podcaster Joe Rogan. “I thought that was news, so I went on TV and said that.”
“His lawyer called me and said, you know, you need to know that anyone who tells you the contents of classified documents has committed a crime,” Carlson continued. “He’s threatening me.”
Carlson also accused Pompeo of convincing Trump not to make public the full investigative files into JFK’s assassination.
Journalist Tucker Carlson publicly criticized Pompeo as a “criminal” who belonged in prison
Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference
“Mike Pompeo is the one who urged Trump to keep those documents secret,” Carlson said said to Rogan. “Pompeo did that. I think Pompeo is a very sinister person and a criminal. I think so. I think that because the facts indicate that he has been arrested.’
Carlson told Rogan that Pompeo “fully expects to be Secretary of Defense” and called the idea “completely insane.”
“Why would you give a criminal nuclear weapons?” he asked.
While still at Fox, Carlson also criticized Pompeo for escalating tensions with Iran after Trump killed Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike.
“It appears that about 20 minutes ago we labeled these very people the Deep State and promised never to trust them again without verification,” he says. said in a 2020 Fox News segment. “For some reason we seem to trust them implicitly and completely.”
Carlson was one of several high-profile critics of Pompeo’s foreign policy views that Trump took to heart as he began appointing officials to serve in his Cabinet.
Billionaire Silicon Valley investor David Sacks also pushed back against Pompeo, noting that the former Trump official was determined to expand NATO and escalate the conflict with Russia for launching a war with Ukraine.
“He is dangerously out of step with President Trump’s views,” Sacks wrote before eventually deleting his post on X.
Sacks also criticized a Wall Street Journal op-ed written by Pompeo about the best way to move forward with the war in Ukraine.
“This is not a peace plan; it’s a way to start World War III,” Sacks wrote bluntly.
Comedian Dave Smith, a libertarian, also criticized Pompeo after Trump won the election.
“The ‘stop Pompeo’ movement is great, but it’s not enough. Right now we need maximum pressure to keep all neoconservatives and war hawks out of the Trump administration,” Smith wrote. “They have had their time at the table and have brought nothing but disaster to the world and this country.”
Smith’s political influence has exploded in recent months after Rogan endorsed him as someone who “really knows what he’s talking about.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listens as US President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference
Silicon Valley investor David Sacks also opposed Mike Pompeo’s return to government
Donald Trump Jr. publicly agreed with Smith and indicated he would contact his father.
‘100% agree!!! I’m working on it,” he wrote.
Hours later Trump announced on social media that Pompeo would not be invited back.
“I will not invite former Ambassador Nikki Haley, or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to join the Trump Administration as it is currently being formed,” Trump wrote.
Pompeo was clearly seeking a position in Trump’s second administration and even attended a meeting with him in Pennsylvania before the election.
During the meeting, Trump praised Pompeo as a “great guy” and urged him to “stand up” to be recognized.
But after Trump publicly announced that Pompeo would not be invited back, he voiced his opinion disappointment on social media.
‘Sir. President – I was also proud to work with you. As you said, when we were together last week, you and I created the plan that made the world safer and did not lead to new wars,” he wrote on X.