At least two former members of the first Trump administration won’t be getting posts the second time around. In a post shared on Truth Social this past Saturday evening, former President Donald Trump revealed that he would not extend cabinet invitations to two former members of his administration, ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. This announcement formalized Trump’s stance toward two Republican figures who had once served in his cabinet but have since voiced skepticism about his leadership and policy direction.
“I will not be inviting former Ambassador Nikki Haley, or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to join the Trump Administration, which is currently in formation,” Trump posted. “I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously and would like to thank them for their service to our Country.”
The New York Times writes that many in Mr. Trump’s orbit, including David Sacks, a major Trump donor, viewed Mr. Pompeo as being too eager to use the military overseas. Mr. Trump also likely did not forget that, in 2023, Mr. Pompeo warned during the Conservative Political Action Conference that Republicans should not follow “celebrity leaders with their own brand of identity politics — those with fragile egos who refuse to acknowledge reality.”
Days later, during an interview with Fox News, Mr. Pompeo claimed he was not talking about Mr. Trump, while also criticizing his former boss’s fiscal policy.
Mr. Pompeo in 2022 also criticized Mr. Trump’s handling of classified documents after the F.B.I. raided his home in Mar-a-Lago.
“No one gets to keep classified information outside of a place classified information should be. That is certainly true,” Mr. Pompeo said, while also denouncing the Justice Department for its handling of the case.
Haley was the last Republican primary contender to withdraw from the Republican nomination contest, even after it was clear that Trump would win the nomination. Just days before the election, she also criticized the Trump campaign’s rhetoric, claiming it was alienating women and minorities. She pointed to racist and misogynistic comments made by speakers at an October rally at Madison Square Garden as evidence.
Haley’s unsuccessful campaign received support from various establishment groups across the political spectrum, including backing from the Koch Brothers and Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman, who has ties to Jeffrey Epstein, New Conservative Post wrote in 2023.
Trump’s exclusion of both Pompeo and Haley from a possible future cabinet suggests a shift in his approach to building a 2024 team. This time around he looks to be considering more political outsiders, and has expressed interest in collaborating those like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy, who recently transitioned from a Democratic platform to an independent run, has also voiced strong opposition to Pompeo’s tenure as Secretary of State, describing Pompeo’s foreign policy as particularly aggressive.
