A presidential campaign preview? Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits Lake Zurich

Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has yet to announce a presidential run, but he gave an audience in Lake Zurich a preview Sunday of what might be to come if he seeks the Republican nomination in 2024.

"If running for Congress was crazy, imagine putting yourself forward (for president)," Pompeo said during an appearance at Quentin Road Baptist Church, where he was promoting his book, "Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love."

"And I say that with enormous respect for America," he added. "For someone to step forward and say, 'I believe I should lead the greatest nation ever to exist' is quite something for someone like me."

Before a crowd that included former GOP gubernatorial hopeful Darren Bailey, state Sen. Dan McConchie of Hawthorn Woods and former state Rep. Jeanne Ives of Wheaton, the onetime congressman from Kansas offered hints of what candidate Pompeo might say on the campaign trail.

In a nod to the culture wars, Pompeo said there is no room for compromise on what he called the core tenets and beliefs of the nation.

"Once you start to round those corners, once you soften those edges, once you give just a little bit, they will move from saying, 'Well, you should be tolerant' to demanding that you celebrate their way of life," he said. "They will seek to say, 'Well, not only do we want to teach certain things in our school, but we are going to put those at the forefront. We're going to make those mandatory. We're going to teach a set of ideas that are anathema to our very nation.' Once you begin to give that inch, once you begin to round those edges, they'll drive a truck through it."

Pompeo also addressed foreign policy, saying he is under threat from the Iranian government as a result of the decision to assassinate Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani in a January 2020 drone strike near Baghdad International Airport. He defended that decision Sunday.

"We saved American lives that day," he said. "He had killed 500 Americans, a couple of friends of mine, in the Gulf Wars. And he was plotting to kill more Americans in Baghdad, in Iraq, including probably folks from my team in the embassy."

He also spoke about his visit to North Korea in 2018 and how he came back with three Americans who had been held captive there.

One of the captives, he said, told him that when he was taken out of his cell prior to being driven to the plane that flew him back to the U.S., he had a hood over his head and was thinking he was being led to his death.

"Only to find that he gets out of this vehicle and sees that his country did not leave him behind," Pompeo said.