Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has personally courted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to consider running for an open Senate seat in Kansas, according to people familiar with the effort, a move that could anger President Trump and further roil his tumultuous Cabinet.

Senate GOP leaders have been so dedicated to recruiting Pompeo that McConnell directly urged him to consider it in a recent telephone call, according to two people familiar with the conversation, which has not been previously reported.

By the time Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) announced that he was retiring earlier this month, GOP leaders were already eying Pompeo. In the hours ahead of Roberts’s announcement, their allies were talking Pompeo up.