Who Is Mike Pompeo? CIA Director, Kansas Congressman Named Secretary Of State

Another top member of President Donald Trump’s staff is reportedly out. On Tuesday morning, news broke that Trump replaced Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with Mike Pompeo, who had previously been Trump’s CIA Director, the New York Times reported.

As he is known to do, the president took to Twitter to make it official.

Prior to being named CIA Director by Trump, Pompeo served as a member of the House of Representatives from the 4th Congressional District of Kansas. He was elected during the Tea Party wave in 2010 and, as such, is staunchly conservative on most political issues. Pompeo is considered an ally of the Koch brothers, having represented their hometown of Wichita, Kansas, in Congress.

His foreign policy stances, now crucial as he becomes head of the State Department, lean firmly to the right. He did not support the Iran nuclear deal, calling Iran a “thuggish police state” in October. The Times stated he will be involved in Trump’s historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un in May. Pompeo has bluntly called for regime change in North Korea in the past.

As both a Congressman and head of the CIA, Pompeo favored keeping the prison at Guantanamo Bay open, claiming its detainees were “treated exceptionally well.” He said NSA monitoring of American citizens’ communications was “a very valuable asset” for intelligence and law enforcement. As such, he was no fan of Edward Snowden; last February, he said Snowden should return from Russia, be given due process and that the “proper outcome” would be the death sentence.

As for his personal life, before he entered politics, Pompeo graduated from both West Point and Harvard Law School. He was born in Southern California in 1963, growing up in Santa Ana. His wife Susan is a politically active Kansas native, even appearing in her husband’s campaign ads. They also have a son, named Nick, and two dogs.