Congress
Trump rejects Pompeo, Haley for Cabinet
President-elect Donald Trump announced Saturday he will not ask his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley to join his cabinet, icing out two former cabinet members whose loyalties to him wavered.
In a Truth Social post Saturday, the former president wrote that he would not be inviting Haley or Pompeo to join the Trump administration. He added: “I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously, and would like to thank them for their service to our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.”
The announcement indicates the extent to which loyalty will factor into the workings of the second Trump administration. Haley ran against Trump for president in 2024 and did not campaign with him even though she offered. Pompeo, who also served as Trump’s CIA director, flirted with a presidential bid of his own in 2024, but opted against challenging Trump for the Republican nomination. Both also endorsed Trump later in the cycle than other former Trump administration officials.
It is unclear if Haley was angling for a position within the second Trump administration. But two people familiar with the deliberations told Blue Light News that Pompeo, who campaigned for Trump, was making a concerted effort to be named to the position of defense secretary. Both were granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive deliberations.
The two people added that Pompeo’s bid to become the nation’s defense chief ran into heated opposition from close allies of the former president, including his son, Donald Trump Jr., and far-right commentator and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Trump’s post came a half hour after Blue Light News asked the transition team to comment on a story being prepared about Pompeo’s bid being blocked by Trump Jr. and Carlson.
“There is a desire to not have people with presidential ambitions” use Trump cabinet posts as a launch pad, said one of the two people, a former senior Trump administration official. “He got burned by Mike previously, and by Haley, and his foreign policy views are not aligned with the president.”
Pompeo, a West Point grad and former House member, had long been among a handful of names publicly circulating as a possible defense secretary in a second Trump administration. That field had already winnowed down this week when Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), an Army veteran and vocal defense hawk, took his name out of consideration for an administration job.
A pair of House lawmakers, though, are in the mix. Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) – a former Green Beret and near constant cable news presence in defense of Trump – is seen as a favorite for the top Pentagon job. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, is also a dark horse candidate to be Trump’s defense chief.
“Ambassador Haley was proud to work with President Trump as she defended America at the United Nations. She wishes him, and all who serve, great success in moving us forward to a stronger, safer America over the next four years,” said Haley spokesperson Chaney Denton.
A spokesperson for Pompeo did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Carlson and a spokesperson for Trump Jr. also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Connor O’Brien, Robbie Gramer and Paul McLeary contributed to this report.
Rep. Don Bacon will not seek reelection and plans to retire at the end of his term, according to two people familiar with his plans. The announcement is expected Monday.
Bacon is a key GOP centrist in the House and represents one of only three Republican-held districts that Kamala Harris won in the 2024 presidential election.
Rep. Dusty Johnson will announce a bid for South Dakota governor Monday, according to two people granted anonymity to speak about private conversations.
Johnson has served as South Dakota’s sole House representative since 2019. He’s been a key player in major deals on Capitol Hill in recent years as the head of the Main Street Caucus of Republicans.
Johnson, long expected to mount a bid for higher office, will make the announcement in Sioux Falls.
Johnson is the eighth House Republican to announce a run for higher office in 2026. Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Byron Donalds of Florida, Randy Feenstra of Iowa, John James of Michigan and John Rose of Tennessee are also seeking governor’s offices; Reps. Andy Barr of Kentucky and Buddy Carter of Georgia have announced Senate runs.
Senate Republicans are planning to take an initial vote at noon on Saturday to take up the megabill.
Leadership laid out the timeline during a closed-door lunch on Friday, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said after the lunch. A person granted anonymity to discuss internal scheduling confirmed the noon timeline but cautioned Republicans haven’t locked in the schedule yet.
During the lunch, Speaker Mike Johnson pitched Senate Republicans on the tentative SALT deal, according to three people in the room. He said the deal was as good as Republican can get, according to the people.
Johnson noted he still has “one holdout” — an apparent reference to New York Republican Nick LaLota, who said in a brief interview Friday that if there was a deal, he was not part of it.
Leaving the meeting, Johnson was asked by reporters whether he thought Senate Republicans would accept the SALT deal. “I believe they will,” he replied. “They’re going to digest the final calculations, but I think we’re very, very close to closing that issue.”
In the meeting, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Johnson laid out details of the fragile agreement, telling Senate Republicans the House SALT deal would be cut in half, to total roughly $192 billion. They restated it would raise the SALT cap to $40,000 for five years under the current House-negotiated SALT deal, and snap back to the current $10,000 cap after that.
In related matters, Kennedy and Hoeven also said the Senate will keep its provider tax proposal but delay its implementation, which Republicans believe will help it comply with budget rules. and Johnson also told Senate Republicans that he wants to do another reconciliation bill — which senators took to mean they would get another opportunity to secure spending cuts or provisions passed that have been squeezed out of the megabill.
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