Mike Pompeo is the new Secretary of State. President Donald Trump confirmed former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson had been ousted in a tweet, writing that Pompeo “will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service!”
CIA deputy director Gina Haspel will succeed Pompeo and helm the CIA.
Before embarking on his career in the executive branch, Pompeo represented Kansas in the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2017. He is a graduate of both West Point and Harvard Law School.
Here’s a look at Pompeo’s career so far:
Pompeo was raised in Orange County, California. He attended Los Amigos High School and played basketball for the varsity squad. “Mike was the type of guy who was just born smart,” childhood friend John Reed told the OC Register.
Growing up, Pompeo said he was influenced by the works of Ayn Rand. He read The Fountainhead at the age of 15, according to The Washington Post. “One of the very first serious books I read when I was growing up was Atlas Shrugged, and it really had an impact on me,” he told Human Events.
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Pompeo left California to attend the US Military Academy at West Point. He majored in mechanical engineering and graduated first in his class in 1986.
He served in the US Army, ultimately reaching the rank of captain. His service was predominantly spent “patrolling the Iron Curtain before the fall of the Berlin Wall,” according to his CIA bio.
Source: Politico, CIA
He left the army and attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1994. Pompeo was editor of the Harvard Law Review and worked as a research assistant for professor and former Vatican ambassador Mary Ann Glendon.
Source: Harvard Law Today
Upon graduating, he went to work for Washington firm Williams Connolly, before leaving for the business world.
Source: Harvard Law Today, The Washington Post
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As a law student, Pompeo had initially been “bent on going into politics,” according to Glendon. “When he went into business instead, I felt real regret to see yet another young person of great integrity and ability swerve from his original path,” she said.
Source: Harvard Law Today, The Washington Post
Pompeo left law to found Thayer Aerospace in Wichita with some West Point classmates. The company has been since renamed Nex-Tech Aerospace and acquired by Gridiron Capital.
Source: Gridiron Company, The Washington Post, The Wichita Eagle
Pompeo left Thayer Aerospace in 2006 and became president of oilfield equipment company Sentry International.
Source: Gridiron Company, The Washington Post, The Wichita Eagle
He also served as a trustee of the conservative Flint Hills Public Policy Institute, which has since been renamed the Kansas Policy Institute, according to The Washington Post.
Source: The Washington Post
Related: How North Korea will spark a global arms race
When it came time for the 2010 Kansas Republican primary for the 4th District Congressional seat, Pompeo decided to run. Glendon told the Harvard Law Bulletin her former assistant “… waited until he and his wife, Susan, had raised their son and assured a sound financial footing for the family.”
Source: Vox, The Wichita Eagle, Harvard Law Bulletin
Pompeo told The Washington Post his business experience prompted him to run for public office. “I have run two small businesses in Kansas, and I have seen how government can crush entrepreneurism. That’s why I ran for Congress. It just so happens that there are a lot of people in south-central Kansas who agree with me on that.”
Source: The Washington Post
Pompeo also had some assistance from some allies back from his days at Thayer Aerospace. Koch Venture Capital had invested in his business, and Koch Industries became a major contributor throughout his political career.
Source: The Washington Post, Center for Responsive Politics
In 2016, Pompeo was the top recipient of Koch Industries’ contributions, receiving a total of $71,100 that year. Koch Industries and its employees contributed a total of $375,500 to Pompeo’s candidacies across his tenure in Congress.
Source: The Washington Post, Center for Responsive Politics
During the presidential election, a Pompeo spokesperson said the Kansas representative would “support the nominee of the Republican Party because Hillary Clinton cannot be president of the United States.”
Source: Business Insider, Reuters, McClatchy
Pompeo had an estimated net worth of $266,510 in 2016, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. McClatchy reported he earns a $185,100 annual salary as CIA director.
Source: McClatchy, Center for Responsive Politics
Read more: How the Navy will enforce North Korean sanctions
In June, Pompeo told MSNBC that he frequently speaks to Trump about North Korea, saying, “I hardly ever escape a day at the White House without the President asking me about North Korea and how it is that the United States is responding to that threat.”
Source: Business Insider
His tenure hasn’t been without controversy. When Pompeo told the audience at a national security summit that Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election didn’t affect its outcome, the CIA released a statement clarifying his remarks: “The intelligence assessment with regard to Russian election meddling has not changed, and the director did not intend to suggest that it had.”
Source: Business Insider
