The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman on Thursday said she was “surprised” by Donald Trump’s omission of one particular person from the list of people the president-elect said he has banned from working in his second administration.
Namely, Mike Pompeo ― who during Trump’s first term served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2017 to 2018 and as secretary of state from 2018 to 2021.
Trump earlier this week wrote on his Truth Social platform that his former national security adviser, John Bolton, his former Vice President, Mike Pence, and others who have criticized him ― plus their allies ― were not welcome in Trump 2.0.
Critics called it a “blacklist.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper noted to Haberman, who is a political analyst for the network, how Trump’s post contradicted his attorney general pick Pam Bondi’s claim that “there will be no enemies list” for the incoming POTUS when he returns to the White House on Monday.
“I mean, does that undermine the ‘no enemies list’?” Tapper asked Haberman. “That looks like something of an enemies list.”
Haberman drew a sharp distinction between Trump and his allies saying “we’re not going to hire certain people and we’re going to prosecute certain people.”
“I also would argue that Trump missed a few people who we know were on that list of his personally,” she added.
Tapper later pressed Haberman to name names.
“I think Mike Pompeo was one of the people I was surprised,” she replied. “I don’t think he considers him an enemy, but he’s been, he’s generally not been embracing of him and made a point of saying that he was not rejoining the administration.”
Pompeo teased running for president himself following Trump’s 2020 defeat to President Joe Biden and took multiple, thinly-veiledswipes at his former boss in the process.
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Watch Haberman’s full analysis here: