On April 23, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 119 in favor of sending Pompeo's nomination to the full Senate, with Senator Chris Coons voting "present" and Johnny Isakson, who was absent that day, voting "yes by proxy". He refused to sign on to a joint statement addressing the need for protection of the Arctic region from the threat of rapidly melting ice unless all mentions of climate change were removed from the document. Now he would often be away travelling, while Bolton, the new national-security adviser and a veteran bureaucratic infighter, had daily Trump time. The couple married right after he graduated from West Point. He is a politician who knows his audience; he wants to give the impression that he generally agrees but hes working with this wild man, another former senior State Department official, who has met with Pompeo privately, told me. [218] As a member of the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce, he voted for two resolutions disapproving of the Clean Power Plan implemented by the United States Environmental Protection Agency during the Obama administration. Diplomat Backed Continuing Support for Saudi War in Yemen Over Objections of Staff", "Iranian foreign minister slams Pompeo over Yemen comments", "Pompeo says Israel has biblical claim to Palestine and is 'not an occupying nation', "Mike Pompeo says China is a threat to the US-Israeli relationship", "Mike Pompeo attacks WHO in private meeting during UK visit", "Pompeo Praises Britain for Getting Tough on China", "US arrests three Chinese nationals for visa fraud", "Beijing's South China Sea project illegal, says US", "Pompeo's speech slamming China will have the 'opposite effect,' says former U.S. diplomat", "Pompeo urges more assertive approach to 'Frankenstein' China", "US officials now call Xi Jinping 'general secretary' instead of China's 'president'but why? According to the NewYorker, Pompeo married Leslie Libert in 1986, the same weekend he graduated from the U.S. Military school. The gestures helped smooth his Senate confirmation. [100], Pompeo praised Trump-brokered peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates as an "enormous" step forward on the "right path". "[172] In March 2017, WikiLeaks began publishing a series of documents known as Vault 7, detailing the CIA's electronic surveillance and cyber warfare activities and capabilities. Obama administration officials acknowledged the existence of agreements between Iran and the IAEA governing the inspection of sensitive military sites but denied that they were "secret side deals", calling them standard practice in crafting arms-control pacts and saying the administration had provided information about them to Congress. Susan Pompeo was born on Feb 1, 1965, she is 55 years old as of 2020. [47], In February 2017, Pompeo traveled to Turkey and Saudi Arabia. It is less the case than he would like, but vastly more the case than anyone else. Pompeos Republican friend told me, Hes not an enabler of Trump. He established the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom,[3] moved the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,[4] and negotiated the Abraham Accords which established diplomatic normalcy between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. On the U.S. Sanctions Against Intl Criminal Court Officials, "Pompeo to join conservative think tank Hudson Institute", "China imposes sanctions on 28 Trump-era officials including Mike Pompeo and Steve Bannon for interfering 'in China's internal affairs', "Biden Administration Criticizes China Sanctions on Former Trump Officials", "Mike Pompeo also a target in alleged Iranian assassination plot against John Bolton", "Pompeo Was Riding HighUntil the Ukraine Mess Exploded", "Eastminster church decides to break from denomination", "Mike Pompeo's Wichita church calls for prayer over confirmation process", "5 faith facts about Mike Pompeo: A divisive devotion", "Watch: Mike Pompeo faces 'no more war' protest during first confirmation hearing for Secretary of State", "Mike Pompeo says he lost over 90lb but experts are skeptical about his fitness journey", "President Tsai awards medal to Pompeo for enhancing Taiwan-U.S. ties", "Mike Pompeo merr titullin 'Honoris Causa"' nga Universiteti i Tirans", Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kansas, List of international trips made by secretaries of state of the United States, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Administrator of the Small Business Administration, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mike_Pompeo&oldid=1146308947, Directors of the Central Intelligence Agency, Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Kansas, Recipients of the Order of Brilliant Star, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Wikipedia pages semi-protected against vandalism, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 24 March 2023, at 02:27. The speculation was driven by concern that Kris Kobach, who lost the 2018 Kansas gubernatorial race, could become the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate if Pompeo does not run. In the crowded Republican primary to succeed him, Pompeo was again backed by the citys business lite. [75], Pompeo condemned the military crackdown by the Myanmar Army and police on Rohingya Muslims. The family regularly attends church at the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. [196] He praised the UK when they started to push back against the Chinese Communist Party and its General Secretary Xi Jinping, especially with respect to Huawei. [27] Pompeo then became president of Sentry International, an oilfield equipment manufacturer that was also a partner of Koch Industries. [151] While other Trump Cabinet members resigned or took a low profile after the attack on the Capitol, in which Trump's role was debated, Pompeo remained a vocal defender of Trump, sending a Twitter message that promoted him as a potential Nobel Peace Prize nominee. [182], In March 2014, he denounced the inclusion of a telecast by Edward Snowden at the South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas, and asked that it be cancelled, predicting it would encourage "lawless behavior" among attendees. A few weeks later, Pompeo celebrated his first anniversary as Trumps Secretary of State, hardly an assured accomplishment in the Presidents ever-changing Cabinet. Later because of some unknown reasons. But Pompeo hoped to make his mark in Congress on national security, and the Intelligence Committee was the panel that he most wanted to serve on. Russian state television aired the interview. chairman, told me that Murfin was a key person for anybody running for office. In January, 2007, Pompeo ran for the chairmanship of the Kansas Republican Party, against Tim Huelskamp, a future congressman, and Kris Kobach, a firebrand who represented the Partys anti-immigrant right wing. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. Pompeo marked the occasion with an unusual all-hands pep rally in the lobby of the State Department, Uptown Funk blaring as he entered. He advocated for moving the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and the withdrawal of the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. [229], Pompeo supported the United States federal government shutdown of 2013, blaming President Obama. Pompeo served as a local church deacon from 2007 to 2009 and taught Sunday school.

[34] During Pompeo's campaign, its affiliated Twitter account praised as a "good read" a news article that called Goyle, his Indian-American opponent, a "turban topper" who "could be a muslim, a hindu, a buddhist etc. Description. Pompeo is affiliated with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Web"Libert" (Liberty) is a 1942 poem by the French poet Paul luard. [214], Speaking about climate change in 2013, Pompeo said: "There are scientists who think lots of different things about climate change. Given that a subsequent F.B.I. Its based on declaring grand objectives, few of which the Administration is willing or able to meet. This gets at a central challenge of Pompeos tenure: turning Trumps tweets and instincts into a coherent foreign policy, as his policy-planning chief often put it. President Trump announced on March 13, 2018, that he would nominate Pompeo to serve as secretary of state, succeeding Rex Tillerson, who stepped down on March 31, 2018. The couple later divorced. Mike gets the President, Christopher Ruddy, a friend of Trumps, told me. Urban was also hearing from Steve Bannon, Trumps ultranationalist chief strategist, who called Urban to suggest that he urge the old man to name Pompeo to the C.I.A. Pompeo was a conservative internationalist who had been shaped by his Cold War-era military service, and he remained a believer in American power as the guarantor of global stability. The secretary of state and the Russian president could only agree that many issues stand in the way", State Department's first-ever employee Christian faith group underscores Mike Pompeo's influence, "Turkey had 'legitimate security concern' in attacking Syrian Kurds, Pompeo says", "Trump changes decades-old U.S. position on illegality of Israeli settlements", "Why the Golan and Crimea Aren't So Different", "As Tensions With Iran Escalated, Trump Opted for Most Extreme Measure", "Inside the plot by Iran's Soleimani to attack U.S. forces in Iraq", "Pompeo: Strike on Soleimani disrupted an 'imminent attack', "Skepticism mounts over evidence of 'imminent' threat that Trump says justified Soleimani killing", "Pompeo says Israel-UAE agreement is enormous step forward", "Pompeo heads home after pushing Israel deal on Mideast tour", "Pompeo's elite taxpayer-funded dinners raise new concerns", Pompeo to resume 'Madison Dinners' despite controversy, "Watchdog: Pompeo spent $65,000 on taxpayer-funded 'Madison Dinners', "Pompeo's Madison Dinners cost taxpayers nearly $65,000", "Pompeo abruptly ends press briefing after questions about State Department IG firing", "Trump Removes State Department Inspector General Steve Linick", "Pompeo broke ethics rules by asking his staff to do personal errands, internal watchdog finds", "Pompeos violated rules on use of State Department resources, IG finds", "State Dept. A little more than a decade ago, he was unknown not only in Washington but also in his adopted home state, where he had just lost his first campaign, placing third in a three-way race to become chairman of the Kansas Republican Party. Within a few years, Pompeo was a trustee of the Flint Hills Center for Public Policy, which also has ties to the Kochs, and he was an early recruit for the Kochs national political organization, Americans for Prosperity. for investigation. "[111][114], The Inspector General had also investigated Pompeo's role in the Trump administration's decision to declare an "emergency" to bypass a congressional freeze on arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. [24], Pompeo represented Kansas's 4th congressional district from 2011 until his January 2017 appointment to director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He will go at Trump to try to change his mind, but if he cant hell go, O.K., were doing what the President has said.. No! The firms post-Pompeo president lists on his rsum today the successful turnaround of Thayer, which was renamed Nex-Tech Aerospace and sold to the private-equity firm Highland Capital, in April, 2007, with the assistance of a company that advertised expertise in the wind-down of overleveraged and underperforming companies. The same month as the sale, the Wichita Business Journal reported that the new C.E.O. He wanted a Mike Pompeo, not a Jim Mattis, a captain trained to follow orders, not a general used to giving them. "[111] The inspector general concluded that the behavior was inconsistent with regulations [112][111][113] and "recommended that various divisions at the State Department, such as the Office of the Legal Adviser, update or draft new guidance that establishes or further clarifies the appropriate use of department funds and staffers when it comes to personal tasks. [180] After a 2013 visit to the prison, he said, of the prisoners who were on hunger strike, "It looked to me like a lot of them had put on weight. [103][104] Pompeo temporarily suspended the "Madison dinners" when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S., but resumed the dinners at the Blair House in September 2020, despite the controversy over them and concerns about public health. investigation into Clintons e-mails hung over her 2016 campaign, the former official said of Pompeo, at the end of the day, he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams., Obamas nuclear deal with Iran was another obsession. In Saudi Arabia, he smiled during a photo op with the Crown Prince soon after the gruesome killing of the dissident columnist Jamal Khashoggi, and angered many members of Congress, including some in his own Party, by appearing to dismiss concerns about it.

Rasure stayed in touch with Pompeo, and persuaded him to become the first investor in his new alternative-energy startup, Sunflower Wind, which planned to make wind turbines. [65][69] International relations scholars Daniel Drezner, Richard Sokolsky, and Aaron David Miller described Pompeo as the worst secretary of state in American history, citing numerous foreign policy failures, fealty to Trump at the cost of U.S. national interest, and improprieties in office. Trump often touts Pompeos credentials as a top student at West Point and at Harvard Law School, but in six years as a member of Congress he never chaired a subcommittee or faced a genuinely competitive election, and he served just over a year at the C.I.A. [107], When asked about his knowledge of the controversial call made by President Trump on July 25, 2019, to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which Trump solicited assistance in investigating the son of former vice president and presidential candidate Joseph Biden,[117] Pompeo initially said he had little knowledge of Trump's call with Zelenskiy since he had not yet read the transcript of the call. Pompeo won the primary with thirty-nine per cent of the vote. He has been married to Susan Pompeo since May 27, 2000. I love his wife, Susan., Pompeo seemed to relish the C.I.A. When Trump demanded an immediate withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, Tillerson pushed for more time. WebPompeo served as a tank officer, a cavalry troop executive officer, and a squadron maintenance officer in Germany. Pompeo also personally delivered the Presidents Daily Brief to Trump, giving the C.I.A. The Office of the Inspector General told CREW that it had not conducted an audit of K Fund expenditures during Pompeo's tenure. Mike Pompeo, the Spymaster Who Couldnt Stay in His Lane. [104], Records obtained by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) in 2021 through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit revealed that the dinners had cost almost $65,000, including more than $10,000 for custom-engraved, Chinese-made pens given as gifts to the attendees. Pompeo was the Trump Administrations most vocal critic of the Chinese government, including his opposition to the oppression of Uyghurs, and focused U.S.-China relations in opposition to China's policies regarding Hong Kong, Taiwan and the South China Sea. [141] However, after the U.S. had left Afghanistan, the Ashraf Ghani government rapidly collapsed and the Taliban regained substantial territory, Pompeo distanced himself and the Trump administration from the situation facing Afghanistan post-withdrawal. In May 2019, Pompeo acted against environmental protection at the Arctic Council. ", In 2017, it was reported that Pompeo had expressed desire for regime change in North Korea. [44] He was confirmed by the Senate on January 23, 2017, with a vote of 6632, and sworn in later that day.

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However, their marriage ended in divorce in 1997 before he started Thayer Aerospace. of state accuses Beijing of stirring racial unrest", "Mike Pompeo cuts visits to South Korea and Mongolia from his Asia trip", "Pompeo lashes out at China at 'Quad' meeting", "United States should recognise 'free' Taiwan, Mike Pompeo says", "Trump's CIA Pick: Russia 'Threatening Europe,' Failing To Destroy Islamic State", "Pompeo Calls On Russia To Free Hunger-Striking Sentsov", "Mike Pompeo calls Vladimir Putin a dictator, blames Biden for Ukraine war, but China 'greater threat', "Russia wants to control energy reserves of all former Soviet countries, Mike Pompeo says", "Rep. Mike Pompeo: Wind tax credit harms economy", "Kansas starts working toward clean air plan that Pompeo wants to kill", "Trump Thwarts GOP Plot to Pretend His Climate Agenda Isn't Idiotic", "The U.N. Report on Extinction vs. Mike Pompeo at the Arctic Council", "GOP Congressman Explains Why He Wants to Defund a Health Program He Supports", "WHO slams 'unacceptable' remarks by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo", "Editorial: Trump's WHO war is just an attempt to divert attention from his own failures", "Pompeo: No rape exception in anti-abortion view", Prohibiting forced abortions by UN Population Fund, "Pompeo tells Kamala Harris he won't discriminate against LGBT workers at the CIA", "Mike Pompeo still opposes gay marriage. Pompeo then spent the next five years (1986-1991) guarding the East German border. Pompeos background bears little resemblance to that of recent Secretaries of State, all of whom came to the job after long careers in public life and with extensive international experience. He divorced her in 1997 without having children. Democrats noticed, too. Its not based on restraint. ", U.S. diplomat says Giuliani waged campaign of 'lies' against envoy to Ukraine, Pompeo Won't Say Whether He Owes Yovanovitch An Apology. [141] In early 2020, Pompeo touted the Trump administrations agreement with the Taliban that put the U.S. on a trajectory to leave Afghanistan by May 2021. 1599 (114th): Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015", "Donald Trump appoints Congressman Mike Pompeo as CIA director", "On the Nomination (Confirmation Mike Pompeo, of Kansas, to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency)", "Senate confirms Mike Pompeo as CIA director", "Pompeo failed to disclose Chinese business connection", "New CIA chief in Ankara on first foreign visit", "Trump's CIA Director Pompeo, Targeting WikiLeaks, Explicitly Threatens Speech and Press Freedoms", "CIA awards Saudi crown prince with medal for counter-terrorism work", "State Secrets Privilege Invoked to Block Testimony in C.I.A. On the committee, Pompeo was regarded by his colleagues as smart and hardworking, very bright, very politically shrewd, as Adam Schiff, a Democrat, put it, with a certain pugnacious quality to his persona. Pompeo gained attention as one of the most partisan promoters of conspiracy theories about the killing of the U.S. Clearly, the trend lines were moving in a direction that wasnt comforting for anyone, Birchfield said, in a deposition in a lawsuit between Thayer and A.C.P.s former owners. [242], In 2014, Pompeo told a church group that Christians needed to "know that Jesus Christ as our savior is truly the only solution for our world". How Pompeo Became Trumps Most Loyal Soldier. Then, at a welcoming ceremony in the lobby of C.I.A. Mike sports an average build with a height of 5 11 (1.81 m). In 2014, according to a Kansas Republican he consulted, Pompeo briefly considered challenging Kansass senior senator, Pat Roberts, in that years primary. The oath stirred controversy about why it was needed, given that diplomats already swear an oath to the Constitution. [171] In 2016 Pompeo stated, "Congress should pass a law re-establishing collection of all metadata, and combining it with publicly available financial and lifestyle information into a comprehensive, searchable database. [138] In response, a spokesperson for the State Department said the department was not bearing any of the costs of the speech and that Pompeo was conducting the speech in his "personal capacity"; the Oversight Subcommittee Chairman, Joaquin Castro, said the speech was "highly unusual and likely unprecedented" and "it appears that it may also be illegal. Trump said that, in their discussion, Pompeo explained he would prefer to stay in his job as Secretary of State and would run only if it were necessary to keep a Republican seat in the Senate. She played a big role in his campaign. The family regularly attends church at the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. [66][65][67][68] Under Pompeo's tenure, career State Department officials quit, were forced into retirement or fired, and were replaced by inexperienced political appointees. Lloyd Blankfein at regular Madison Dinners, named for the fifth Secretary of State (and fourth President). WebMike Pompeo had married Leslie Libert in 1986. To the extent you get out of synch with that leader, then youre just out shooting the breeze. No matter what Trump has said or done, Pompeo has stood by him. In a sign of Pompeos ability to remain in Trumps good graces, the President publicly bristled at Bolton, not him, after the aborted Iran strike. [141][144][145][146], After Joe Biden won the 2020 United States presidential election and Trump refused to concede while making false claims of fraud, Pompeo, when asked whether there would be a "smooth transition" to the Biden administration, responded on November 10, 2020: "There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration, all right. He is an executive. By his second marriage, he has a son named Nicholas. job. News linked to leslie libert pompeo: Where is leslie libert pompeo mentioned in news? [96][97][98][99], In January 2020, Pompeo abruptly ended an interview with Mary Louise Kelly of NPR's All Things Considered, and called her to private quarters where he admonished her for asking questions regarding Ukraine during the interview. A few minutes later, Pompeo concluded, Its time to turn down the lights on the circus., Pompeos stinging rebuke of Trump got barely a mention in the local press, and Rubio finished third in Kansas. He saw and heard from the President how much he was souring on Tillerson, the former official told me. The couple later divorced. Pompeo was reportedly among the most hawkish advisors within the administration during the meeting in which Trump decided to assassinate Soleimani. On that I give him massive respect, the way he mapped Wichita power, the way he mapped D.C. power, the way he mapped Trump., The narrative of Pompeos transformation has been rewritten over the years, or never told at all. Yet, after Trump won the Presidency, Pompeo sought a post in his Administration and did not hesitate to serve as his C.I.A. Fifteen months after Pompeo took over the State Department, the question is not whether he has stayed in Trumps good favor but to what ends Pompeo is using the relationship. Pompeo used the sessions to establish a friendly relationship with the President, a contrast to Trumps friction-filled dealings with other top national-security advisers. convention, Pompeo believed that he had the race sewn up, Rasure said, but Kobach flipped a bloc of votes, and won. For years, Pompeo criticized Secretary of State Hillary Clintons handling of the incident, and, when the select committee that was created to investigate it issued a bipartisan report clearing her, Pompeo and Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, were the only dissenters, arguing that Clinton knew Benghazi was a terrorist attack but, with the 2012 Presidential election only two months away, she covered it up. With State in crisis, Pompeo reached out to some veteran diplomats who had quit or been pushed aside, promoted a career Foreign Service official to serve as the departments No.