Why Ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo isn’t Running for President

Mike Pompeo, who used to be the Secretary of State, said on Friday that he will not join the competition for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. He told this during an interview with Fox News where he explained that competing against his former boss, Donald Trump would not be a good move.

Pompeo said in a statement later posted to Twitter, “My family and I don’t think this is the best time for me to run for office again. I’ve been lucky enough to have the chance to help America with my public service being in the army, working in Congress, becoming Director of Central Intelligence Agency and Secretary of State. But now is not the moment that fits my current situation.”

Pompeo said sorry to people who were disappointed with the announcement and let them know that as he’s 59 years old, there may be other chances to become a president because leading the country is becoming more important.

Pompeo would have been the second person from Donald Trump’s Cabinet to run for President in the 2024 election. Nikki Haley started her campaign earlier this year, and Vice President Mike Pence is also thinking about joining the race. He has recently been visiting a lot of places that will decide who goes on to win the election.

Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson are running their own presidential campaigns. U.S. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina is also thinking about starting a campaign too. President Joe Biden has said he will try to run for president again so most people likely won’t run against him in the Democratic nomination.

Haley and Pence have both disagreed with Trump, but Pompeo hasn’t. Additionally, Trump has not scolded or criticized him like he has some of the other folks. Furthermore, Pompeo even praised the former president and called him a “great boss.”

The former congressman was a very good student in the U.S. Military Academy, graduating at the top of his class in 1986. After that, he served for five years in active duty and even commanded tanks across the border between Western Europe (backed by NATO) and Eastern Europe (under control of the Soviet Union).

The retired Army Captain is a lawyer from Harvard. He worked in Washington and then moved to Wichita to start two businesses – one in aerospace, the other in petroleum equipment. After that, he entered politics and got four consecutive terms representing southern Kansas. When he was in government office, he was on the House Intelligence Committee and investigating an attack on the US embassy in Libya in 2012.

Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo is proud of the 2020 agreement between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. He also points to how President Trump imposed tariffs on China, had direct talks with North Korea and the U.S. withdrew from 2015’s Iran nuclear deal – all as part of his ‘America First’ theme.

Since the US left the Iran deal and put huge taxes on them in 2018, people have been sending death threats to Pompeo. So, the State Department is giving him 24 hours security protection to keep him safe.