Kansas City Star pummeled by journalists as editorial board casts doubt on how Pompeo lost weight

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The Kansas City Star is facing backlash over an article authored by the paper's editorial board suggesting former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was being dishonest about his drastic weight loss. 

Pompeo went viral this week when he revealed what was behind his physical transformation following the Trump administration, which began in June 2021 when he said he was close to weighing 300 lbs.

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"I started exercising, not every day, but nearly every day, and eating right and the weight just started to come off," Pompeo told the New York Post. 

The Post reported the former GOP lawmaker "invested in a home gym in his basement with some dumbbells and an elliptical machine." He has since lost about 90 lbs.

"I tried to get down there five, six times a week and stay at it for a half-hour or so," Pompeo said. "And that was nothing scientific. There was no trainer, there was no dietician. It was just me."

Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images) (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)

However, the editorial board of the Missouri newspaper was skeptical of the former Kansas congressman's simplistic explanation for his stunning weight loss, publishing a piece titled, "‘Dude, just tell the truth’: Mike Pompeo lost 90 lbs, but not the way he said he did."

"We asked weight loss experts, and people who have lost large amounts of weight themselves, whether it’s possible to lose 90 pounds in six months simply by eating better and hitting a humble home gym for half an hour five or six times a week," the editorial board began the article. "Their response? Absolutely not, almost certainly not, and hahaha."

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Micah LaCerte, whom the Star dubbed "Kansas City's top personal trainer," claimed Pompeo "would have to be on a massive starvation diet" that would have involved no carbs and that "no way" would only a half an hour of working out would accomplish such weight loss in a short period of time.  

"The numbers just don’t add up," LeCerte told the Star. "Dude, just be honest. Mike, come on, man."

Former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman and former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. (Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images)

New York bodybuilder Al Rose similarly told the paper "it's just not likely" Pompeo could have done so well "without surgery, drugs or other extreme measures," adding that the ex-Republican lawmaker is "definitely being untruthful" and that "losing that much weight that quickly… isn’t healthy under any circumstances."

"His face is sunken and his skin doesn’t look good. He’s gone from one extreme to the other," Rose said. "That message he’s spouting should not be marketed."

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The editorial board concluded its piece writing, "Pompeo did tell the Post that ‘the truth is losing weight has been a lifetime struggle for me.’ Telling the truth has been, too."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in November 2020. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

The article was lambasted on social media with many journalists shocked that such a story would be authored by the editorial board of a newspaper. 

"Did Regina George write this?" New York Magazine writer Shawn McCreesh reacted, referring to the famous teenage villainess played by Rachel McAdams in the film "Mean Girls."

"This unsigned editorial reads like one long mean tweet," Politico correspondent Christopher Cadelago wrote. "The star accuses Pompeo of lying w/ no proof he did. Why not be happy for the guy. He’s almost certainly healthier."

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"Ladies and gentlemen, the editorial board of the Kansas City Star," Washington Post editor Amy Argetsinger tweeted.

"‘We asked weight loss experts …’ — as begins every serious, self-respecting piece of journalism at a time when democratic norms are crumbling. Ugh," Politico correspondent David Siders slammed the article. 

"You wrote this from *the editorial board* lmao what a joke," Ruthless podcast co-host Michael Duncan blasted the Star. 

McClatchy, which owns the Kansas City Star, did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.