New Delhi: Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has joined Fox News as a contributor, said the American news channel in a statement Thursday.
“I intend to give viewers a candid, no-nonsense look at geopolitics, international relations and the America First policies that helped chart the course for unprecedented American prosperity and security,” tweeted Pompeo Thursday, who served as Secretary of State from 2018 to 2021 in the Donald Trump administration and as the director of US’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2017.
In this new role at @FoxNews, I intend to give viewers a candid, no-nonsense look at geopolitics, international relations and the America First policies that helped chart the course for American prosperity and security.https://t.co/pZf9dFVXj6
— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) April 8, 2021
Pompeo will offer analysis on Fox News and Fox Business both during the day and prime-time hours, the release said. He will make his first appearance Friday.
Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott referred to him as “one of America’s most recognized and respected voices on foreign policy and national security issues” in the statement.
A Trump loyalist, media reports have in the past noted that no other foreign policy adviser had the “president’s ear” like Pompeo.
However, he had also come under scrutiny for his behaviour in the administration.
Last May, Trump’s assertion that he fired State Department inspector general Steve Linick at Pompeo’s request set off a media frenzy. “I don’t know the gentleman … I was happy to do it. Mike requested that I do it,” Trump had said.
He had also stirred a controversy last November by refusing to acknowledge Joe Biden as president-elect after the election results came out.
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Several Trump aides hired by Fox
Pompeo is the latest in a line of former Trump officials hired by Fox News.
In March, former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany announced she would be coming on board as a commentator. After her announcement, the Daily Beast quoted an anonymous ‘Fox News insider’ as saying: “Post-Trump Fox is quickly becoming a very scary place and quite dangerous for our democracy.”
Former Trump press secretary Sarah Sanders had also joined Fox News in August 2019 after leaving the Trump administration.
In 2018, Hope Hicks, former White House communications director who famously infected Trump and wife Melania with Covid-19, joined Fox Corporation as executive vice-president and chief communications officer, but now plans to rejoin the White House.
Though the terms of Pompeo’s deal were not disclosed, a Deadline report referred to the financial disclosure that John Bolton, who famously stepped down as Trump’s national security advisor, made while serving as a contributor to Fox News.
Bolton, an ambassador to the UN at the time, earned a salary of $560,423 during his time with the network, the report revealed.
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