Trump’s closest advisers––and all of us at The Jewish Press––widely considered former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to be the leading contender for defense secretary in the second term. On the eve of the election, Trump publicly lauded Pompeo at a campaign rally, admiring his noticeable weight loss and playfully referring to him twice as “handsome.”
But according to a Tuesday Wall Street Journal report, in the final days before the election, Tucker Carlson approached candidate Trump with an urgent appeal: Mike Pompeo needed to be sidelined.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson appears to remain influential in conservative circles, enough to be able to warn Donald Trump that selecting Mike Pompeo would be a dangerous move. Carlson reportedly described Pompeo as a warmonger and cited several grievances, including an alleged plot by Pompeo when he was secretary of state to assassinate WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Carlson aired the assassination claim during an April appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, though he provided no evidence to support the accusation.
According to the WSJ, citing people familiar with the discussions, Carlson and Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect’s eldest son, warned against appointing neoconservatives to key roles in the new administration, arguing such figures would seek to control Trump rather than serve him. They reportedly cited Mike Pompeo as a prime example of such a neocon, accusing him of disloyalty for distancing himself from Trump’s claims of election fraud in 2020 and condemning the Jan. 6 Capitol riot as “unacceptable.”
Just days after the election, President-elect Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley, his former U.N. ambassador, would not be joining his new administration.
Apparently, there’s no love lost between Carlson and Pompeo, as can clearly be seen in the post below:
Here’s an amusing note: back in February 24, 2022, Catherine Garcia reported in The Week that Russian state media personalities are lauding President Vladimir Putin’s order to send troops into eastern Ukraine, using commentary from Fox News host Tucker Carlson and former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to further support Putin’s actions.
