Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State under Donald Trump, though not invited back, is now trying to agitate and flatter President Trump to do more than merely threatening to overthrow Iran. On Jan.2, Pompeo posted to his X account:
“The Iranian regime is in trouble. Bringing in mercenaries is its last best hope.
“Riots in dozens of cities and the Basij under siege — Mashed, Tehran, Zahedan. Next stop: Baluchistan.
“47 years of this regime; POTUS 47. Coincidence?
“Happy New Year to every Iranian in the streets. Also to every Mossad agent walking beside them…”
The post is cc’ed to Donald J. Trump, Secretary Marco Rubio, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
Trump is extremely susceptible to flattery and Pompeo doesn’t mind playing cutesy—witness his “47 years of this regime; POTUS 47. Coincidence?” Recall, that it was Pompeo who convinced then-President Trump to assassinate, by a missile strike, Qassem Soleimani, the former commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard on Jan. 3, 2020 at the Baghdad Airport. Under Trump, Pompeo was head of the Central Intelligence Agency (from January 2017 through April 2018), and Secretary of State (April 2018 through January 2021). He was known for two things: boasting to a conference that as CIA Director, “we lied, we cheated, we stole” (https://youtu.be/x6wbfjspVww?t=1769), and that he had skill at manipulating Donald Trump.
On Dec. 29, 2025 at a meeting at Mar-a-Lago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump reportedly spoke of a “second” round of strikes against Iran. Pompeo had no problem bragging in his Jan. 2 allusion to the role of Israeli Mossad agents working on the ground, agitating to turn protests into riots. Pompeo’s ugly pomposity hasn’t improved and it only makes the situation that much more dangerous and perhaps imminent.
