The former US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, accused Nikki Haley of plotting with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump to be named vice president in a new memoir peppered with broadsides at potential rivals in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

Pompeo writes that Haley "played" Trump's then-chief of staff, John Kelly, and instead of meeting the president alone, was accompanied by Trump's daughter and her husband, both senior advisors, describing his own rage when Haley secured a personal Oval Office meeting with Trump without first consulting him.

Pompeo writes, “As best Kelly could tell, they were presenting a possible ‘Haley for vice-president’ option. I can’t confirm this, but [Kelly] was certain he had been played, and he was not happy about it. Clearly, this visit did not reflect a team effort but undermined our work for America.”

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According to The Guardian, Pompeo's new book, which will be published next week, contains a series of shocking scenes, other than the Haley story. The book also says Trump had the "nutty idea" that Pompeo could be secretary of state and also secretary of defense. 

The Haley story, on the other hand, is firmly in the vein of Washington reportage and tell-alls that Pompeo claims to despise. It also lends credence to reports that Trump considered firing his vice president, Mike Pence, in favor of Haley, a rumor Trump was forced to deny in 2019.

It will also add to intrigue around reports that Kushner’s family is fundraising for Haley ahead of her 2024 run.

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Trump's "nutty" idea

On a related note, a year out from the Republican primary, Trump remains the only declared candidate. However, competition for positions is becoming more intense. 

Pompeo's descriptions of Pence, a self-proclaimed fellow devout Christian, and, most notably, Trump himself, are studiedly respectful. Pompeo, unlike Pence, avoids open criticism of his former boss in his memoir, So Help Me God. Pompeo is also more at ease with the former president's frequently vulgar language, according to The Guardian. 

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The former secretary said that on July 19, 2020, midway through the summer of the coronavirus pandemic, Trump's last chief of staff, Mark Meadows, told him Mark Esper was "not going to make it" at the Pentagon for much longer. 

Pompeo explained that Meadows told him Trump wanted his secretary of state to “dual hat”, meaning to “take on leading the department of defense as an additional duty," adding that he told him that it was “a nutty idea” as he had “plenty” to do at state and “couldn’t possibly command defense at the same time”.

“President Trump pitched the idea to me,” Pompeo writes. “I think he was half-kidding.”

Trump may not feel in a kidding mood when he reads Pompeo’s descriptions of such “nutty ideas” which, according to The Guardian, the former secretary of state writes, quickly “faded, all for the good”.