Mike Pompeo, who served as CIA Director and U.S. Secretary of State during the first Trump administration, said he approves of President Trump’s handling of Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. naval blockade of the Strait.
As seen below on Fox News, Pompeo said, “Iran now has a very difficult decision to make…and President Trump has essentially gone for the jugular. He will cut off essentially all revenue that has been flowing into the Iranian regime.”
Iran is in a bind: If they fire on an American vessel or an American-escorted vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, you can be sure that all hell will be unleashed upon them.
One thing is for sure – this is not going to end well for the Iranian regime, or for their ally in Beijing. pic.twitter.com/l3Eouya8lm
— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) April 13, 2026
Pompeo added: “Imagine if they fire on an American vessel or an American-escorted vessel that’s moving through. President Trump will unleash even more fury, and that can only put them in a lesser position. So I think President Trump has done a very smart thing. I think this is superior to having put boots on the ground to try and take one of the islands.”
Pompeo added that it will also “put China in a very difficult spot, where they will now have to buy market-priced oil or convince the Iranians to stand down and allow the Strait to be reopened.”
[NOTE: Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) said at the Iran war’s outset that Trump wanted to stop China from getting oil.]
Several X users disagreed with Pompeo’s sentiment that the Iranians will stand down. As one skeptic replied, questioning Pompeo’s logic: “This guy wants you to believe Iran is rational and risk-averse enough not to fire on a U.S. Navy vessel during an active war for fear of reprisal… but also that the same Iran would launch a nuke in a first strike if they got one… annihilation 2.5 minutes later be damned.”
[NOTE: It was revealed in the book “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,” by Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, and Isaac Arnsdorf, that Pompeo was the target of an alleged plot by Iran to assassinate him while in Paris in 2022.]