How Tucker Carlson blocked 'warmonger' from becoming Trump's defense secretary

Journalist Tucker Carlson successfully lobbied President Donald Trump to keep his former Secretary of State and CIA director Mike Pompeo out of his second administration, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Trump's decision to block Pompeo from his administration demonstrates his willingness to trust non-traditional media sources and outsider confidants rather than establishment figures with experience in government. 

Pompeo, a four-term congressman from Kansasm was first in his class at West Point, and a graduate of Harvard Law University before entering the Trump administration in 2017 as the director of the CIA. 

Trump shifted Pompeo to the State Department in 2018 after the disappointing tenure of former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson, the president's first choice to lead the department. 

Carlson has long been a public critic of Pompeo, in particular because of his reported attempt to assassinate Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

'Mike Pompeo, who is a very sinister person, the worst, and I always thought that and I've told Trump that, never should have let him run CIA or State,' Carlson said in a podcast interview with TV star Roseanne.

The story of Pompeo's efforts against Assange were first reported by Yahoo News in 2021, based on 'conversations with more than 30 former U.S. officials.'

Carlson, who urged Trump to pardon Assange, continued hammering Pompeo even after he left office. 

'Mike Pompeo tried to have him murdered,' Carlson said, and added, 'Why is Mike Pompeo not in prison?'

Pompeo, Carlson repeated, would repeatedly flatter Trump to get him to trust him and his advice on foreign policy, which was that of a committed pro-war neo-conservative.

'Mike Pompeo, I saw it up close, and I saw it intimately close, is a liar and a flatterer,' he said.

Carlson also grew wary of Pompeo after the former CIA director's lawyers contacted him after he spoke about the John F. Kennedy assassination on his Fox News show.

'I spoke to someone who seen the documents two years ago and I got one fact out of them, which is yes the CIA was involved,' Carlson said during a 2024 interview with podcaster Joe Rogan. 'I thought that was news, so I went on TV and said that.'

'His lawyer called me and said, you know, you should know that anyone who tells you the contents of classified documents has committed a crime,' Carlson continued. 'He's threatening me.'

Carlson also blamed Pompeo for convincing Trump not to release the full investigative files of the JFK assassination to the public.

'Mike Pompeo is the one who pressed Trump to keep those documents secret,' Carlson said to Rogan. 'Pompeo did that. I think Pompeo is a really sinister person and a criminal. I think that. I think that because the facts suggest that he was caught.'

Carlson told Rogan that Pompeo 'fully expects to become the Secretary of Defense' and called the idea 'completely insane.'

'Why would you give a criminal nuclear weapons?' he asked.

While he was still at Fox, Carlson also criticized Pompeo for escalating tensions with Iran after Trump killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike.

'It seems like about 20 minutes ago, we were denouncing these very people as the Deep State and pledging never to trust them again without verification,' he said in a 2020 Fox News segment. 'Now for some reason we do seem to trust them implicitly and completely.'

Carlson was one of many high-profile critics of Pompeo's views on foreign policy that Trump took to heart as he began drafting officials to serve in his cabinet.

Billionaire Silicon Valley investor David Sacks also opposed Pompeo, noting that the former Trump official was determined to expand NATO and escalate the conflict with Russia for launching a war with Ukraine.

'He's dangerously out of step with President Trump's views,' Sacks wrote before ultimately deleting his post on X.

Sacks also criticized an Wall Street Journal op-ed penned by Pompeo about the best way to proceed on the war in Ukraine. 

'This is not a peace plan; it's a way to start WW3,' Sacks wrote bluntly.  

Comedian Dave Smith, a libertarian, also voiced his criticism of Pompeo after Trump won the election.

'The "stop Pompeo" movement is great but it's not enough. Right now we need maximum pressure to keep all neocons and war hawks out of the Trump administration,' Smith wrote. 'They have had their time at the table and brought nothing but disaster to the world and this country.'

Smith's political influence has exploded in recent months after Rogan endorsed him as someone who 'actually knows what he's talking about.'

Donald Trump Jr. publicly agreed with Smith and indicated he would follow up with his father.

'Agreed 100%!!! I'm on it,' he wrote.

Hours later Trump announced on social media that Pompeo would not be invited back.

'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 wrote.  

Pompeo was clearly angling for a position in Trump's second administration, even attending a rally with him in Pennsylvania before the election.

At the rally, Trump praised Pompeo as a 'great guy' and urged him to 'stand up' to be recognized.

But after Trump publicly announced Pompeo would not be invited back, he expressed his disappointment on social media.

'Mr. President - I was proud to work with you too. As you said, when we were together last week, you and I built the plan that made the world safer & led to no new wars,' he wrote on X.