What does the future hold for Mike Pompeo, Donald Trump’s loyal top diplomat?
- Mike Pompeo morphed from Donald Trump sceptic into a diehard evangelist as secretary of state
- A possible 2024 run by Trump could upset any presidential ambitions Pompeo may hold
US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo is arguably the most Trumpy of President Donald Trump's Cabinet secretaries. He has aggressively pursued the president's “America First” agenda, mimicked the commander in chief's bombast and routinely flouted norms observed by his predecessors.
In a sharp turn from previous Republicans and Democrats who held his post, Pompeo has echoed Trump's praise of dictators and suspicion of traditional democratic allies. The result has been a mixed record that foreign policy experts say will take years to assess, but did little to build ties with foreign leaders put off by Trump's contempt for alliances.
Pompeo “seemed more of a democracy denier than a democracy promoter, more rooted in domestic politics than foreign policy,” said Douglas Alexander of Harvard Kennedy School's Future of Democracy Project. His tenure “not only weakened the State Department at home,” Alexander said, “but weakened America's standing” abroad.
The secretary of State's tenure and adoption of Trump's brash style, Republican operatives say, can best be seen as a calculated way to position himself as Trump's heir in the 2024 Republican primaries.
Trump's electoral defeat has scrambled that calculus, putting in doubt the political future of a Cabinet secretary who morphed from Trump sceptic into diehard evangelist. Adding to Pompeo's woes, Trump is suggesting he will run again in 2024, which would probably force loyalists who had their eyes on the job like Pompeo to step aside.
If Trump decides not to run in 2024, a Republican candidate will still need to marshal the support of a large chunk of the outgoing president's base and adopt many of his policies.