Pompeo says Trump’s 2024 bid won’t alter his own decision

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that Donald Trump’s expected announcement of a 2024 run for president will not impact his own thinking on mounting a White House campaign.

“What happens today or tomorrow, what some other person decides won't have any impact on that,” Pompeo told conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday morning.

Trump is expected to announce his bid for another term as president on Tuesday evening during a prime-time event at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida home. But the former president’s iron-clad grip on the Republican Party has appeared to weaken over the past week as Trump-backed candidates in many winnable midterm races failed to capture House, Senate and gubernatorial seats. Heading into his announcement, some of Trump’s staunchest allies had yet to endorse him in the 2024 race.

Pompeo, Trump’s former secretary of State and a potential 2024 presidential candidate, had previously said a Trump bid for president wouldn’t keep him from running. He doubled down on that position on Tuesday while also seemingly taking a swipe at Trump ahead of his planned announcement later this evening, saying the former president would need to “explain why he thinks he should be that next president” and talk about “things that matter to the American people.”

“I served in the administration, I'm proud of the policies we laid out,” Pompeo said. “We need more seriousness, we need less noise, we need steady hands, we need leaders that are looking forward, not staring in the rearview mirror claiming victimhood.”

Pompeo said he would likely make a decision about running by the spring.

“These are deeply personal decisions and we will sort our way and as soon as we have figured it out, we will let the American people know,” Pompeo said.

Former Vice President Mike Pence — another potential Republican contender for 2024 — echoed a similar sentiment to Pompeo's in a subsequent interview with Hewitt on Tuesday, indicating that Trump's campaign announcement would not alter his own decision to run for president. He said he and his wife, Karen Pence, would "carefully consider" what role they might play in the 2024 campaign and that they would likely come to a decision in the new year.

"The only decision Karen and I have made with regard to our future is that we're not going to let anyone else make that decision for us," the former vice president said.