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GREAT TEW, England — Mike Pompeo was supposed to talk about “politics on the playing field” in his interview at the IMG x RedBird Summit on Wednesday.
But sports mostly stayed on the bench in the nearly hour-long discussion, during which the former U.S. secretary of state conceded that his then-boss, President Donald Trump, did not win the 2020 election.
The conversation at Wednesday’s IMG x RedBird Summit 2025 started out as it had been billed, with Pompeo telling British journalist Alastair Campbell that he was a “mediocre power forward” back in the day. But Campbell quickly turned the subject to Trump, who was also in the U.K. that day, albeit for a state visit.
After Pompeo referenced Trump’s continued insistence he won the 2020 election in addition to 2016 and 2024, Campbell asked Pompeo whether he believes Trump beat Joe Biden in 2020.
“No, he didn’t win,” Pompeo said.
The admission stood in contrast to how Pompeo handled the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election. He famously said one week after Election Day there would be a “smooth transition to a second Trump administration” despite Biden’s victory and Trump’s failure to prove there had been widespread fraud in a court of law.
Following that admission, Pompeo brought up the upcoming 2026 FIFA men’s World Cup, which will be held in 16 stadiums across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Trump has taken credit for bringing the soccer tournament back to the U.S. for the first time since 1994, and while the bid was awarded during his first term, it was a collective effort among the countries involved, FIFA, and others.
“He wanted this; he chased this in his first term,” Pompeo said.
Campbell, the interviewer, wasn’t ready to let the talk fully turn to sports; he brought up Trump’s interest in buying Greenland. Pompeo, who is not part of the second Trump Administration, said he can’t speak for the president. “I get it that it ruffles people’s feathers,” he said.
The tension in the room led one audience member to interject, asking, “I’m sorry, is this about politics on the playing field?”
Campbell replied that there was a lot to talk about with the former secretary of state.
At about the 30-minute mark, Campbell opened up the floor for questions. While sports did come up—Pompeo joked he knows just enough about cricket to seem competent when traveling the world—the conversation remained mostly centered on politics, from China as a global threat to whether global democracies are losing confidence in themselves and their institutions.
Pompeo—who now works at Torridon Law and its related advisory firm Torridon Group—steered the conversation back to sports as the hour concluded and ended on an optimistic note, saying, “One thing that has the capacity to move us in a positive direction is engaging in sport.”
Editors’ note: RedBird IMI, in which RedBird Capital Partners is a joint venture partner, is the primary investor in Front Office Sports.
