Pompeo Targets Trump: Told Me to ‘Shut the Hell Up’ About China to Keep Xi Jinping Happy

AP Photo/John Raoux, File

Former secretary of state and director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo, wrote in his upcoming memoir, Never Give An Inch: Fighting For the America I Love, that then-President Donald Trump once told him to “shut the hell up for a while” about China.

In the book, Pompeo recalls a March 26, 2020 call Trump had with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The call came after Pompeo had accused China of having “repeatedly delayed” sharing data regarding the Covid-19 pandemic and being engaged in a “disinformation campaign” to save face.

Pompeo, who listened in on Trump’s call with Xi, recalled Xi warning Trump that Pompeo’s accusations regarding China’s approach to the pandemic threatened a major trade deal between the two countries.

Semafor’s Shelby Talcott and David Weigel summarized Pompeo’s writing on the topic:

Pompeo believed that Xi was trying to get Trump to fire him — “My Mike, that fucking guy hates you!” the president said after the call — and a few days later, in the Oval Office, Trump told Pompeo that he was “putting us all at risk” by angering Xi, in part because the United States still needed protective health equipment from China.

“Stop, for God’s sake!” said the president.

Pompeo writes that he “honored” Trump’s desire to stop criticizing China, but that he “spoke the truth” about the situation.

“We needed health equipment and were at the CCP’s mercy for it,” Pompeo adds in the book. “I worked for the president, and would bide my time.”

Talcott and Weigel note that Pompeo including this exchange in his memoir hints at how Pompeo “could criticize Trump if he joins him in the 2024 presidential race.”

Trump has spent years throwing rhetorical bombs at China and much of his presidency engaged in a trade war with Xi, credentials Pompeo may be uniquely positioned to attack.

Pompeo was asked on Fox News on Wednesday if he was concerned Trump would attack him or call him “disloyal” if he were to run against him in 2024, to which Pompeo replied, “Oh goodness, no.” Pompeo made clear that his loyalty was always with America and not Trump.

“Pompeo’s story goes after Trump’s credibility on that issue, reminding readers that the former president favored a friendlier approach to Xi than he did,” writes Talcott and Weigel.

The journalists also note that Pompeo included in his memoir a critique of Trump’s early praise of Xi on Covid-19:

He even quotes a Jan. 2020 tweet that Democrats have thrown back at Trump, thanking China for its effort to “contain the coronavirus” and ending with “on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”

“I was not happy that the president had tweeted that,” Pompeo writes.

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