Mike Pompeo is desperate to look tough – but his new book proves he’s timid about tackling Trump

Mike Pompeo is desperate to show off just how formidable an opponent he is. In his own telling, each time America’s former top spy and top diplomat has gone toe-to-toe with the world’s strongmen, he has refused to back down.

He joked to Kim Jong-un about trying to kill him during a clandestine trip to North Korea; he threatened to walk out on Vladimir Putin when the Russian president kept him waiting for a meeting, and he once tried to break down a door to find Recep Tayep Erdogan in his Turkish palace.

Pompeo’s memoir, Never Give an Inch, offers a taste of his tough guy approach to foreign policy during his four turbulent years in Donald Trump’s administration. It is not just America’s adversaries that come in for a rough ride; while Theresa May barely warrants a mention, French president Emmanuel Macron is a “weak little girl”.

But Never Give an Inch is not intended to be a handbook for a new generation of American diplomats. Really, it’s the campaign manifesto of a man almost certainly running to be America’s next president. The problem is, the one tough guy Pompeo appears unable to confront is the very one he’s gearing up to challenge.

Trump is a frequent presence in the book, but Pompeo skirts away from some of the lowest points of his presidency, from his clumsy defence of White Nationalist protesters in Charlottesville, to his financial and legal jeopardies, and the commander-in-chief’s hospitalisation with coronavirus. Other difficult moments for Trump are glossed over. His two impeachments are a “sham”; his efforts to overturn the 2020 election are a “failed” legal “challenge”. The deadly attack by a pro-Trump mob on the US Capitol on Jan 6 2021 is only referred to in passing as the “mayhem”.

This delicate balancing act is an essential but risky proposition for Pompeo, 59, and other Republicans preparing to take on Trump, 76, for the party’s nomination. Openly criticising the former president carries the risk of provoking the ire of Trump and his base, and being counted out as a potential running mate. Running in Trump’s shadow brings its own set of challenges. Despite the veiled warnings from his former boss, Pompeo has made clear that Trump’s candidacy will not sway his decision. A White House bid could come in the “next handful of months”, he said in recent interviews.

He is indisputably one of the best qualified candidates, and his memoir works hard to show off his impeccable CV. After graduating first in his class at West Point, America’s elite military academy, Pompeo served as an army captain, studied law at Harvard, started his own company, and served as a congressman for Kansas. He is the only person ever to have served as both director of the CIA and Secretary of State.

The book is not just a first step towards a presidential campaign but a chance to settle scores with his old – and potentially future – rivals. Pompeo does not hold back. Nikki Haley, Trump’s former UN ambassador (“a job that is far less important than people think”), is a quitter who “flat-out threw in the towel” to preserve her reputation. John Bolton, the former national security adviser, is an ego-centric schemer who “should be in jail” for spilling classified information with his own no-holds-barred account of the White House.

Unsurprisingly for Trump’s loyal former lieutenant, the media as a whole comes in for its share of attack. But his singling out of individual reporters over negative coverage comes across as petty and vindictive. Other attacks are truly shocking, such as his dismissal of the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist and Saudi government critic Jamal Khashoggi. In the eyes of Pompeo, Khashoggi was not a proper “journalist”, but “an activist who had supported the losing team” and the “global uproar” over his killing “disproportionate”.

Between the angry diatribes, Pompeo’s book offers interesting insights on US foreign policy in the Trump era. He reveals India and Pakistan came close to a nuclear war in 2019, which he and other US officials worked frantically to avert. Pompeo writes that he was woken by an urgent call from his Indian counterpart when the neighbouring nations “started threatening each other in connection with the decades-long dispute over the northern border region of Kashmir”. He writes: “I do not think the world properly knows just how close the India-Pakistan rivalry came to spilling over into a nuclear conflagration in February 2019.”

His descriptions of the run-up to Trump’s historic meetings with Kim include fascinating nuggets about the reclusive North Korean dictator, including his extensive knowledge of American basketball and his love of cigars. Trump’s attempt to explain his nickname for Kim (“little rocket man”) to the North Korean leader is recounted. Kim, it transpires, was unaware of Elton John or his famous song: “Kim’s response was classic and we all laughed: “‘Rocket Man,’ okay. ‘Little’ not okay.”

The former diplomat clearly respected his former British counterparts, and Boris Johnson in particular, but his fondest praise is reserved for Israel – which he suggests may be “America’s real special relationship”. His contempt for the European Union and its leaders, by contrast, is hard to miss.

He is not shy about sharing his views on US domestic policy either – attacking the Black Lives Matter movement, standing firm on his opposition to same-sex marriage, and touting his anti-abortion record. It is all red meat to the conservative base, but appetite for Pompeo among Republicans nationwide appears limited. Polls show him hovering around one per cent among GOP primary voters – far below rivals Haley, Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis, and, of course, Trump.

Never Give an Inch is published by Broadside at £25. To order your copy for £19.99 call 0844 871 1514 or visit Telegraph Books