--- title: Trump Says Pompeo Discussed Leaving to Run for Senate description: The President said Pompeo told him he'd "rather stay" in his current job but would run for Senate if he thought a Democrat might win it. canonical: https://time.com/5737089/trump-pompeo-senate-fox/ author: Madeleine Carlisle article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-11-22T19:20:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:52:27.506Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Says Pompeo Discussed Leaving Administration to Run for Senate og:description: TIME previously reported that Pompeo wants to run for Senate in Kansas og:url: https://time.com/5737089/trump-pompeo-senate-fox/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94ea6c62035d7e8c/698a068b22fb8573e2e2a342/trump-pompeo-senate-fox.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: trump pompeo senate fox og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Says Pompeo Discussed Leaving Administration to Run for Senate twitter:description: TIME previously reported that Pompeo wants to run for Senate in Kansas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94ea6c62035d7e8c/698a068b22fb8573e2e2a342/trump-pompeo-senate-fox.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Says Pompeo Discussed Leaving Administration to Run for Senate > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: The White House Says Israeli Settlements in the West Bank Are No Longer Illegal [Watch (HLS stream): The White House Says Israeli Settlements in the West Bank Are No Longer Illegal](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cwGOTcVC.m3u8) (1:33)  _Published 2019-11-20. On Monday, the Trump Administration broke with decades of U.S. precedent to redefine America’s policy on Israeli settlements in the West Bank._  by [Madeleine Carlisle](https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/)  ## Madeleine Carlisle Nov 22, 2019 7:20 PM UTC  President Donald Trump listens to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a cabinet meeting at the Cabinet Room of the White House October 21, 2019 in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump listens to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a cabinet meeting at the Cabinet Room of the White House October 21, 2019 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong—Getty Images  by [Madeleine Carlisle](https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/)  ## Madeleine Carlisle Nov 22, 2019 7:20 PM UTC [President Donald Trump](https://time.com/5736372/trump-tax-returns-california/) has acknowledged that [Mike Pompeo](https://time.com/5692547/mike-pompeo-trump-impeachment-inquiry-zelensky/) talked to him about leaving he Trump Administration to run for Senate, but said the Secretary of State told him he’d “rather stay” in Washington. [TIME reported](https://time.com/5732232/mike-pompeo-kansas-senate-run-state-exit/) on Tuesday that Pompeo has recently told three prominent Republicans that he plans to resign and run for Senate in Kansas in 2020\. Pompeo had originally planned to stay in the Administration until early spring of 2020, but his involvement with the House impeachment inquiry has damaged his relationship with President Trump and hurt him politically. Sources told TIME that Pompeo is now trying and leave the Administration in the smoothest way possible. [But in an interview Friday morning](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNqKhRcpktU) on _Fox & Friends_, Trump appeared to give Pompeo a green light to run. “Mike would win easily in Kansas, great state, and it’s a Trump state,” he continued. “He loves what he’s doing… \[but\] he came to me and said look, ‘I’d rather stay where I am,’ but he loves Kansas, he loves the people of Kansas. If he thought there was a chance of losing that seat, I think he would do that. And he would win in a landslide.” Trump said Pompeo assured him he’d rather stay in his job as Secretary of State and would only run if necessary. Pompeo’s aides have previous denied to TIME that he was planning a run, and declined to comment for the story on Tuesday. “Secretary Pompeo is only focused on executing President Trump’s foreign policy goals and completing the mission for the American people at the State Department. Anyone who says otherwise is just wrong,” a person close with the Secretary told TIME for the story. Although originally from California, Pompeo made his money in Witchita, Kans., and represented Kansas in the House of Representatives between 2011 and 2017\. He’s been in the Administration since first days Trump took office, previously serving as Trump’s CIA Director. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5737089/trump-pompeo-senate-fox/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5737089/trump-pompeo-senate-fox/"},"headline":"President Trump Says Pompeo Discussed Leaving Administration to Run for Senate","datePublished":"2019-11-22T19:20:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:52:27.506Z","description":"The President said Pompeo told him he'd \"rather stay\" in his current job but would run for Senate if he thought a Democrat might win it","url":"https://time.com/5737089/trump-pompeo-senate-fox/","keywords":["2020 Election","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94ea6c62035d7e8c/698a068b22fb8573e2e2a342/trump-pompeo-senate-fox.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Madeleine Carlisle","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94ea6c62035d7e8c/698a068b22fb8573e2e2a342/trump-pompeo-senate-fox.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"trump pompeo senate fox","caption":"trump pompeo senate fox","creditText":"Alex Wong—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2020-election/","name":"2020 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5737089/trump-pompeo-senate-fox/","name":"President Trump Says Pompeo Discussed Leaving Administration to Run for Senate"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The White House Says Israeli Settlements in the West Bank Are No Longer Illegal","description":"On Monday, the Trump Administration broke with decades of U.S. precedent to redefine America’s policy on Israeli settlements in the West Bank.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/cwGOTcVC/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2019-11-20T13:06:56.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cwGOTcVC.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5737089/trump-pompeo-senate-fox/","duration":"PT1M33S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5737089/trump-pompeo-senate-fox/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```