President-elect Donald Trump announced in a public social media post Saturday that he will not be inviting two members of his former administration back to the White House.
Trump is meeting with potential candidates to serve in his administration before his Jan. 20 inauguration as president. Reuters reported Friday that Trump met with prominent investor Scott Bessent, who is a potential U.S. Treasury Secretary nominee.
Nikki Haley, who served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were both mentioned in the post. The Republicans had been considered two strong candidates for Trump’s new Cabinet.
“I will not be inviting former Ambassador Nikki Haley, or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to join the Trump Administration, which is currently in formation,” the president-elect posted on Truth Social early Saturday evening.
“I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously, and would like to thank them for their service to our Country,” he continued. “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
The 52-year-old Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, ran for the Republican nomination in 2016, but endorsed Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida after dropping out.
However, Trump still selected her to be his U.N. ambassador, a post she held until her abrupt resignation in 2018. At the time, Trump praised her, saying that she was “very special” to him and that she could return to his administration in the future, adding, “You can have your pick.”Haley did not run for president in 2020, but launched a 2024 bid against her former boss.
She suspended her campaign following Super Tuesday in March, the last major Republican challenger in the field to do so.
But it was not until over two months later, when she delivered an address at Milwaukee’s Republican National Convention in July, that she endorsed Trump.
Haley has been both publicly supportive and critical of the president-elect in the past. She endorsed Trump for president despite having criticized him harshly when she ran against him in the party primaries.
Last week, she wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed in support of his presidential campaign.”I don’t agree with Mr. Trump 100% of the time,” Haley wrote. “But I do agree with him most of the time, and I disagree with Ms. Harris nearly all the time. That makes this an easy call.”
Pompeo, while not one of Trump’s most vocal supporters, has also expressed support for the president-elect in the past.
Pompeo, who also served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency under Trump, has been mentioned in some media reports as a possible defense secretary and had been also seen a potential Republican presidential candidate, before he announced in April 2023 he would not run.
In an open letter with over 400 signatories, including Gold Star families and national security officials, Pompeo endorsed Trump for president.
“From a world at peace under President Trump, we are closer to a third world war than ever before under the Biden-Harris Administration,” the letter, which was written in October, stated. “With multiple escalating wars around the world, an open border that allows terrorists to flood into the American homeland, and malign actors like China operating unabated, U.S. national security has been profoundly damaged by the failed policies of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.”