The relentless ambition of Mike Pompeo
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
Donald Trump is still publicly undecided about whether he will run for president again in 2024.
Mike Pompeo isn’t waiting around.
The former Trump administration official — he served as secretary of state and head of the CIA — launched a super PAC on Tuesday to run for president in 2024 support Republicans running for office in 2022.
Known as CAVPAC (Champion American Values PAC), Pompeo debuted the new organization in an interview with conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt.
“We’re teaching kids the wrong things,” Pompeo told Hewitt. “We’ve got to get that right. We’ve got to make sure that our young people who, our young women don’t have to compete against young men in sports. We can’t have our voices canceled.”
Which sounds a lot like Trump, right? Which is, of course, on purpose.
If there was a star made in the Trump administration — outside of Trump himself — it was Pompeo, who was plucked from the relative obscurity of the Kansas congressional delegation to head the CIA. So famously did he and Trump get along — all part of the Pompeo plan — that the then-President made him secretary of state, the nation’s top diplomat.
(In a lengthy 2019 profile of Pompeo by the New Yorker’s Susan Glasser, Pompeo was referred to as a “heat-seeking missile” for Trump’s um, posterior, by an unnamed former ambassador.)
Pompeo, unlike fellow administration official Nikki Haley, who has been publicly deferential to her former boss, has been unapologetic about his interest in running for the White House. He spent two days in Iowa and Zoom-ed into a New Hampshire fundraiser in April.
“I will never stop fighting for America First, even after my time as Secretary of State,” he tweeted just before leaving office. “There is always more work to be done and I look forward to continuing to share and engage with you on what’s next.”
“Sean, I’m always up for a good fight,” Pompeo told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in April when asked about his future plans. “I care deeply about America. You and I have been part of the conservative movement for an awfully long time now. I aim to keep at it.”
Oh, he’s keeping at it, all right.
The Point: Pompeo wants to be at the front of the line if and when Trump says “no” to 2024. The risk his aggressiveness runs, of course, is getting sideways with the former President, who doesn’t like anyone stealing his spotlight.
