Blunt ex-military man who ‘thinks like president’
MIKE POMPEO is what Donald Trump likes to call a “winner,” someone in possession of all three qualifications the president values most – academic achievement, military experience and business success.
The 54-year-old, who replaces Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, graduated first in his class from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1986, before serving as a cavalry officer. He later graduated from Harvard Law School, and went on to have a successful business career with aerospace and private security companies.
In 2010 he was elected as a US congressman for Kansas, serving on the House intelligence committee.
As CIA director he delivered the president’s morning intelligence briefing almost daily. Traditionally, the briefing had been a sombre affair but it developed into a more unpredictable, freewheeling event. Mr Trump would fire questions, Apprentice-style, at Mr Pompeo on a range of subjects, sometimes straying beyond intelligence matters into subjects like healthcare and how to deal with Congress.
The president said: “With Mike ... we have a very similar thought process. We’ve had a very good chemistry right from the beginning.”
Colleagues described Mr Pompeo as “clear-eyed and hard-nosed” and someone who speaks in the “blunt manner of a man who has no time to waste”.