Mike Pompeo, former secretary of state for Donald Trump, details in his upcoming memoir what he believes is a plan to oust Mike Pence as vice president.
Pompeo said that Nikki Haley, when she was the US ambassador to the United Nations, convinced then-White House chief of staff John Kelly to arrange an Oval Office meeting between her and the president.
But Haley appeared flanked by senior Trump advisers, daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
“As far as Kelly can tell, he’s giving ‘Haley for vice president’ a choice,” Pompeo wrote in an excerpt from “Don’t Give An Inch: Fighting For The America I Love” published by The Guardian on Thursday.
“I can’t confirm this, but (Kelly) believes that he was played, and he’s not happy about it,” Pompeo added. “Clearly, this visit does not reflect team effort but undermines our work for America.”
It is unclear when the meeting took place. Haley and Kelly both served in the Trump administration from July 2017 to December 2018.
Trump, amid speculation in 2019, was forced to publicly reject the idea of dumping Pence for Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, on the 2020 ticket.
Pence “is our man 100%,” he said at the time.
Pompeo, in a memoir to be released next week, also expressed his distaste for Haley, saying the ambassador’s role was “a less important job than people think.”
“He has described his role as toe to toe with the tyrant,” he wrote, according to a quote from The Guardian. “If so, why would he quit such an important job at such an important time?”
Haley left the role at the end of 2018.
Pompeo’s dig at Haley should come as no surprise. Both could be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
So far, Donald Trump is the only Republican to officially announce his candidacy.