Pompeo appears to take aim at Trump for looking backwards and 'claiming victimhood,' calls for serious leaders

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Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared to take a shot at former President Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying America needs leaders who are "not staring in the rearview mirror claiming victimhood."

The remarks from Pompeo, who is rumored to be considering a campaign for the GOP nomination for president in 2024, came after Trump declared Tuesday night during his announcement that he would run for president for a third time that he is a "victim" of the federal government and the "deep state" after its raid of his Mar-a-Lago residence.

"We need more seriousness, less noise, and leaders who are looking forward, not staring in the rearview mirror claiming victimhood," Pompeo wrote in a tweet.

As speculation grows over whether he will seek the presidency in 2024, Pompeo has been a very frequent visitor to the early voting states the past year and a half.

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Pompeo, who currently serves as a Fox News contributor, has made numerous stops in New Hampshire as well as Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada, the other three early voting states in the Republican presidential nominating calendar.

Mike Pompeo, former U.S. secretary of state, speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, on Feb. 25, 2022. (Tristan Wheelock/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

"Whether we’ll decide to get in the race and run for president, I can’t answer," Pompeo told Fox News during a stop in New Hampshire in September. 

But, he emphasized, "we are doing the things that one would do to be ready to make such an announcement and then to engage with the American people on the ideas that we believe matter."

Pompeo was an Army officer stationed in Germany during the Cold War who was later elected to Congress from Kansas before serving as CIA director and America’s top diplomat during the Trump administration.

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Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former President Donald Trump (Chip Somodevilla, Alon Skuy/AFP via Getty Images)

Regarding the FBI’s search last month of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, in which agents recovered classified documents, Pompeo stressed that "nobody gets to keep classified documents in the place they're not supposed to be. Not the former secretary of state. Nobody."

However, he added that "the raid on Mar-a-Lago was indecent and improper and historically unprecedented and terrible idea for our democracy… it’s possible that there are two wrongs took place there."

Former President Donald Trump gestures during an event at his Mar-a-Lago home on Nov. 15, 2022, in Palm Beach, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

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Pompeo’s political action committee has gone up with ads in the early voting states, another sign he’s seriously mulling a White House bid.

Fox News' Paul Steinhauser contributed to this article.