Pompeo Says He Will Not Run for US President

Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo. (AFP file photo)
Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo. (AFP file photo)
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Pompeo Says He Will Not Run for US President

Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo. (AFP file photo)
Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo. (AFP file photo)

Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has said he would not seek to run for president in 2024.

"(My wife) Susan and I have concluded, after much consideration and prayer, that I will not present myself as a candidate to become President of the United States in the 2024 election," Pompeo wrote on Twitter.

The Republican cited personal reasons, saying "the time is not right for me and my family."

The former soldier and CIA director hinted, however, at a potential future bid for the presidency.

"To those of you this (news) thrilled, know that I'm 59 years old. There remain many more opportunities for which the timing might be more fitting as presidential leadership becomes even more necessary."

Seen as brusque in public and curt with the media, Pompeo vowed to give the US State Department back its "swagger" after being appointed its secretary by then-president Donald Trump.

He managed to stay consistently in Trump's good graces, loyally defending his boss on camera and to foreign allies.

Despite his elite education at West Point and Harvard Law, Pompeo emerged from obscurity as a businessman in Kansas when he was elected to Congress in the right-wing Tea Party wave of 2010.

Trump himself and his former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley have also entered the Republican contest for the nomination.

US President Joe Biden inched closer to formally launching his 2024 bid on Friday, saying to reporters "I told you my plan is to run again."

"I've already made that calculus. We'll announce it relatively soon," Biden said at the end of his visit to Ireland.



Israel Launches Communications Satellite from Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
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Israel Launches Communications Satellite from Florida

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lifts off at Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center before the launch of Axiom Space Axiom Mission on June 25, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/Getty Images/AFP

Israel on Sunday said it had launched a new national communications satellite on board a SpaceX rocket from the United States.

The Dror 1 satellite was blasted into orbit on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and the foreign ministry said.

"This $200 million 'smartphone in space' will power Israel's strategic and civilian communications for 15 years," the ministry wrote on X.

Accompanying video footage showed the reusable, two-stage rocket lift off into the night sky. SpaceX said the launch happened at 1:04 am in Florida (0504 GMT Sunday).

IAI, which called the launch "a historic leap for Israeli space technology", said when it announced the project to develop and build Dror 1 that it was "the most advanced communication satellite ever built in Israel".

In September 2016, an unmanned Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a test in Florida, destroying Israel's Amos-6 communications satellite, which was estimated to have cost between $200 and 300 million.