Mike Pompeo Served on the Board of a Ukrainian Telecom, Imperiling Bid to Rejoin Trump White House

The former secretary of state's bid to return to the Trump administration is a test for the anti-neocons

Mike Pompeo speaking at the Republican National Convention / Source: Andrew Harnik / Getty Images

A debate over Mike Pompeo’s role inside the incoming Trump administration is quickly becoming a defining contest between those in Donald Trump’s orbit who want to make good on his promise to bring peace versus those who see his presidency as an opportunity to further ignite conflict, according to sources involved in the battle. 

Pompeo served as Trump’s CIA director and then his secretary of state, but it is his more recent board service with a Ukrainian oligarch’s telecom firm, coupled with his hawkish approach to global conflict, that has his comeback effort running into significant obstacles.

Since 2019, Trump has been attacking Joe Biden and “the Biden crime family” largely over Hunter Biden’s role on the board of a Ukrainian energy company. To turn around and offer a top cabinet position—Pompeo has been floated for secretary of defense—would be a humiliating reversal. 

Pompeo spent the waning period of the campaign traveling to rallies with Trump, where Trump would occasionally compliment on handsome his significant weight loss —upwards of 100 pounds—had made him. Trump is said by those close to him to be leaning against bringing Pompeo back into the administration, but is facing a heavy lobbying campaign from supporters such as radio host Hugh Hewitt and Pompeo ally David Urban, who have spoken directly to Trump on Pompeo’s behalf. Brian Hook, a war hawk reportedly in line to lead the State Department transition, is similarly advocating for Pompeo, the sources said.

Donald Trump Jr., Tucker Carlson, and others hostile to the neocon wing, the sources said, had made their opposition to Pompeo known internally.

In an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast in May, former Fox News host Carlson warned that Pompeo had successfully advised Trump against releasing secret documents relating to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He also reminded viewers of a bombshell scoop by Yahoo! News in 2021 revealing that Pompeo, a “real sinister persona and a criminal,” had drawn up plans to kill Julian Assange, the controversial founder of Wikileaks, and lately a hero among much of the pro-Trump conservative movement.

David Sacks, a close ally of Elon Musk, posted a tweet Thursday evening that some in Trump’s orbit read as a warning shot against Pompeo. Sacks also shared criticism from Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec, two highly influential conservative activists. 

Pompeo, during his time out of power, appeared almost intentional in his efforts to render his return to Trump’s orbit more difficult. Aside from his Ukraine work, he also made a fortune helping to broker Nippon Steel’s takeover of U.S. Steel, which Trump has decried as a borderline-treasonous selling out of American industrial capacity. 

During his campaign, Trump promised to wind down U.S. involvement in conflicts in Europe and the Middle East and to pivot away from regime change policies favored by the Washington foreign policy establishment. Pompeo, however, remains a stalwart evangelist for the same sort of neoconservative policies that he espoused during his time as secretary of state—many of which he now stands to personally benefit from through ties that he has cultivated in the private sector.

This summer, The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed co-authored by Pompeo in which he outlined what he called a “Trump Peace Plan” for Ukraine. The ambitious plan would include escalating sanctions on Russia, lifting restrictions on weapons available for use by Ukraine, the creation of a $500-billion, World War II-style “lend-lease” program for Ukraine to buy more U.S. weaponry, the ascension of the country to the European Union and NATO, and, finally, the creation of $100 billion NATO fund for future arming of the country. 

Inexplicably, Pompeo also suggested that the plan aligned with Trump’s vow to end the war “immediately,” despite crossing nearly every one of Moscow’s red lines.

The article did not acknowledge Pompeo’s financial ties to Ukraine, including his appointment last November to the board of Kyivstar, the Ukrainian telecommunications giant. His co-author, David Urban, also served as managing director of BGR Group, a D.C.-based lobbying firm whose clients include a member of the Ukrainian parliament and an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Kyivstar is the largest mobile operator in Ukraine, as well as one of the country’s top broadband internet companies. His appointment to the board was a coup for the company, aligning its own interests with that of a powerful former secretary of state. 

​​“I proudly join VEON and Kyivstar in their extraordinary service to the people of Ukraine by providing essential connectivity and digital services in health, education, business growth and entertainment. I also applaud Kyivstar’s parent company VEON for its leadership in investing in Ukraine with their own long-term commitment and their ‘Invest in Ukraine NOW!’ initiative,” Pompeo said in a press release through Kyivstar’s parent company.

Pompeo’s lobbying on behalf of foreign companies also puts him at odds with the nationalist leanings of the incoming Trump administration.

In December of last year, Nippon Steel, a Japanese company, initiated a $15-billion bid to acquire U.S. Steel, one of the world’s largest steel producers and the second largest in the U.S. The proposal raised the alarm of union workers in the industry, as well as others in the U.S., who objected to the sale of an iconic company to a foreign owner. Both Democrats and Republicans, including Biden and Trump, respectively, expressed public opposition to the deal.

In October, Trump reiterated his commitment to halt the deal. "I would stop it if it hasn’t been completed by the time I’m president,” he pledged. Nippon instead is trying to close the deal before Trump takes power. 

Fearing domestic political opposition might kill the agreement, in July, Nippon hired Pompeo to help lobby for it.

Where Iran policy is concerned, Pompeo may encounter even more opposition. During Trump’s first term, advisors and appointees like Pompeo and John Bolton pushed hawkish policies on Iran perfectly aligned with the neoconservative establishment. That included the annulment of the 2015 nuclear deal and a “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions and targeted killings against Iranian leaders that brought the U.S. to the brink of war. 

The new Trump administration, however, has suggested it might pivot away from further confrontation in the Middle East, backing away from the regime change advocated by neoconservatives and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

“Our interest very much is in not going to war with Iran. It would be a huge distraction of resources. It would be massively expensive to our country,” J.D. Vance, the vice president-elect, said in an interview on The Tim Dillon show last month, putting distance between the Trump administration and Israel.

In a recent appearance on a show hosted by Patrick Bet-David, an Iranian-American podcaster, Trump echoed that sentiment. “We can't get totally involved in all that,” he said of pursuing regime change in Tehran. “We can't run ourselves, let's face it.”

Pompeo also spoke at a 2023 conference held by the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, or MEK, a cult-like extremist group widely unpopular inside Iran that many Western officials have nonetheless championed as a legitimate opposition movement to replace the current government, and with which Pompeo has maintained ties since leaving government. How much Pompeo was paid for that speech is unknown. 

Despite being widely viewed as an ineffective force in Iran’s opposition movement due to their unpopularity, the MEK has continued to attract high-profile political guests at its events, with speakers in the past reportedly receiving generous speaking fees for their attendance.

In his comments at the MEK conference in France last year, Pompeo promised to continue supporting the MEK and even deliver regime change in Iran. “U.S. policy towards Iran has to be centered around support for this organized opposition and increasing pressure on the regime until it falls,” he said.

Amid public indications that hawkish figures like Pompeo and Brian Hook may be staffing his administration, conservatives influential in the Trump movement have urged him to exercise caution regarding Pompeo.

Former congressman Ron Paul, a famous opponent of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, spoke on a podcast where he analyzed a hawkish campaign speech given by Pompeo in which the former secretary of state promised to confront Iran and defend Israel. Paul warned Trump against appointing him to his administration.