Donald Trump can’t trust Mike Pompeo for Cabinet post: Roger Stone

Far-right Republican strategist Roger Stone issued a stark warning to President-elect Donald Trump on Friday: Trump should not trust his former secretary of state and CIA director Mike Pompeo.

Stone congratulated Trump on winning the 2024 election and continued to repeat right-wing conspiracy theories, including the baseless claim that Trump was “overthrown in a sweeping coup and blamed for the Fed’s insurrection on January 6th.”

“Now that Trump is back in charge, it will be much harder to separate the wheat from the chaff,” Stone wrote on his website.

Stone went on to highlight Pompeo and Trump’s former UN ambassador – and former Republican rival in 2024 – Nikki Haley.

These “neoconservatives have positioned themselves to take on very influential roles within the second Trump administration,” Stone wrote, “and this sinister fifth column has the potential to be more damaging to Trump’s America First agenda than his left-wing opinions within the Democratic Party Party.”

Trump’s transition team moved into high gear after his decisive victory in the 2024 election, and on Thursday Trump named his 2024 campaign co-chair Susie Wiles as his next White House chief of staff.

Pompeo, who held two different roles in Trump’s first Cabinet, is widely seen as a contender for defense secretary in Trump’s second administration The Wall Street Journal.

Newsweek reached out to Pompeo’s representatives for comment.

Stone criticized Pompeo on his website for “being relatively quiet throughout the presidential season” and then “appearing on the campaign trail in the final days before Trump’s victory to advocate for his former boss.”

Stone also referred to speculation that Pompeo would throw his hat in the ring for the 2024 GOP nomination.

Before “it became apparent that Trump would regain prominence and win the presidency again, Pompeo distanced himself and flirted with a possible presidential run of his own,” Stone wrote on his website.

Pompeo confirmed in April 2023 that he had no prospect of running for president in 2024.

“I have made a decision,” Pompeo told Fox News host Bret Baier at the time. “I was on your show a few months ago and you asked what I was going to do in 2024. Susan and I have now thought about it and have prayerfully come to the conclusion that we will not run the race in 2024.”

“This is not our moment,” he continued. “This is not the time for us to seek elected office.”

Stone further referenced Pompeo’s comments at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2023, when he warned Republicans not to look to “prominent leaders” with “fragile egos.”

The Republican strategist continued to criticize Pompeo’s record as Trump’s secretary of state as well as his time as CIA director.

“If Pompeo is accepted into the next Trump administration, his history shows that he would promote deep state hegemony rather than an authentic America First agenda,” the strategist wrote.

Stone has long been one of Trump’s most loyal supporters. That loyalty paid off for Stone when Trump granted him a full pardon after Stone was convicted of seven crimes, including making false statements, witness tampering and obstruction of justice in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.