The 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 for winning the 2024 election, and went on to repeat right-wing conspiracy theories, including the baseless allegation that Trump “was ousted via deep state coup and blamed for the Fed-surrection on Jan. 6.”
“Now that Trump is back on top, it becomes far more difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff,” Stone wrote on his website.
Stone went on to single out Pompeo and Trump’s former UN ambassador—and onetime 2024 Republican rival—Nikki Haley.
These “neocons have positioned themselves to get highly influential roles within the second Trump administration,” Stone wrote, “and this sinister fifth column has the potential to be more harmful to Trump’s America First agenda than his leftist opinion within the Democrat Party.”
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Trump’s transition team kicked into high gear after his decisive victory in the 2024 election, and on Thursday, Trump tapped his 2024 campaign co-chair, Susie Wiles, as his next White House chief of staff.
Pompeo, who served in two different roles in Trump’s first Cabinet, is widely believed to be a contender for secretary of defense in Trump’s second administration, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Newsweek reached out to representatives for Pompeo with a request for comment.
Stone criticized Pompeo on his website for “being relatively quiet throughout the presidential season” and then appearing “on the campaign trail to advocate for his former boss in the final days heading into Trump’s victory.”
Stone also referenced speculation that Pompeo was going to throw his hat into the ring for the 2024 GOP nomination.
Before “it became obvious that Trump was going to rise back into prominence and yet again win the presidency, Pompeo was creating distance and flirting with a potential presidential run of his own,” Stone wrote on his website.
Pompeo confirmed in April 2023 that a 2024 presidential run was not in the books for him.
“I have made a decision,” Pompeo told Fox News host Bret Baier at the time. “I was on your show a number of months back, and you asked what I was going to do in 2024. Susan and I now have been thinking about it and prayerfully have come to the conclusion that we’re not going to join the race in 2024.”
“This isn’t our moment,” he continued. “This isn’t the time for us to seek elected office.”
Stone went on to point out Pompeo’s comments at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2023 when he warned Republicans not to look to “celebrity leaders” with “fragile egos.
The Republican strategist went on to criticize Pompeo’s record as Trump’s secretary of state, as well as his time as CIA director.
“If Pompeo is placed into the next Trump administration, his history shows he would promote the hegemony of the deep state rather than an authentic America First agenda,” the strategist wrote.
Stone has long been one of Trump’s most stalwart supporters. That loyalty paid off for Stone when Trump issued him a full pardon after Stone was convicted of seven felonies, including making false statements, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice in connection with the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.