Mike Pompeo fires starting pistol in race for White House

Former secretary of state addresses Iowa Republicans, pitching himself as Trump loyalist while hinting at own presidential campaign.

Mike Pompeo has never concealed his ambitions for higher office, with a recent speech in Iowa laced with hints that he has his eyes on a bigger prize. Picture: AFP

In an Iowa diner packed with Republican activists the former secretary of state Mike Pompeo fired an unofficial starting gun for the 2024 US presidential election cycle.

Less than three months ago Pompeo, 57, was winding down his tenure as President Trump’s chief diplomat, responsible for taking the White House’s abrasive “America First” agenda to the great capitals of the world.

On Friday he was in Des Moines where he pitched himself to a crowd of conservatives as a loyal Trump supporter while laying the groundwork for a potential presidential campaign of his own in the state that kicks off every race for the White House. Ostensibly Pompeo was there to encourage the Westside Conservative Club in its efforts to help Republicans win a majority in the House of Representatives next year but no politician with a national profile visits Iowa without stoking presidential speculation.

It was an honor to speak with the Westside Conservative Club in Iowa this morning. So many passionate Americans who care deeply about our country. I stand with all of you in our mission to secure, protect and champion American values. Let’s get to work! pic.twitter.com/HNrCWc4kWT

— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) March 26, 2021

C-Span, the public affairs television network, dispatched its “Road to the White House 2024” team for the first time to cover the event, marking the earliest start to its coverage of a presidential election race since 2008.

Pompeo has never concealed his ambitions for higher office. In 2019 he was asked if he would consider running for president. “America has given me an awful lot,” he replied then. “And if I thought I could do a good turn, there’s nothing I wouldn’t consider doing for America.”

Pompeo’s appearance at the Machine Shed restaurant put him out in front of a field of potential Republican presidential candidates who are all attempting the same delicate balancing act: how to burnish their own credentials without appearing to threaten the prospects for a third election campaign by Trump, 74, who remains by far the most popular figure in the party according to polls but has not so far committed himself to running again.

Pompeo, a Christian and military veteran who served as a Republican Congressman for Kansas and then as director of the CIA before he became secretary of state, emphasised he was in Iowa because of the midterm election but his speech was laced with hints that he has his eyes on a bigger prize.

“We’re in Iowa after all - the first in the nation primary,” he said at one point, dropping an unsubtle reference to his ambitions for 2024 and making a minor gaffe: Iowa holds caucuses which are followed in election years by New Hampshire hosting the first primary.

The Times