Secretary of State Mike Pompeo may be the next cabinet member to exit the Trump regime if this report from Time is correct.
Time reports that while Pompeo was planning to resign after the new year in any case, he may resign sooner rather than later because Trump's impeachment may harm his future campaign for a Senate seat.
Pompeo’s plan had been to remain at the State Department until early spring next year, the three Republicans tell TIME, but recent developments, including the House impeachment inquiry, are hurting him politically and straining his relationship with Trump.
So Pompeo is rethinking his calendar, say the top Republicans, one who served in the Trump Administration, another who remains in government, and a third who served in several high-ranking posts and is active in GOP politics. The timing of Pompeo’s resignation now will be decided by his ability to navigate the smoothest possible exit from the administration, the three Republicans say.
Our experience of the last three years tell us there are no smooth exits from the Trump regime. Some, like former Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, eventually walk away and are never heard from again, but that usually happens after they've crashed and burned.
Reports that Pompeo may move up his timetable for resignation were written before Ambassador Gordon Sondland testified this morning and his testimony -- which included the admission that Pompeo was in the loop on Trump's scheme -- certainly didn't give Pompeo more reasons to stick around.
The longer Pompeo stays on his current position, the more opportunities there will be for Trump to try to blame him for whatever goes wrong.
On the other hand, if Pompeo resigns too quickly, he may not be able to count on Trump's endorsement in 2020.
Everyone who works with Trump is eventually humiliated.
People close to Pompeo have denied that he's planning to resign and run for Senate, but he has made several trips to Kansas in the last year for no other discernible reason.