Look How Pompeo’s Work Ethic is Leaving Former Secretary of States in THE DUST
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Newly appointed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is a house on fire.
He’s gotten so much done in a short period of time, that much like Trump, he’s making his predecessors look bad.
Pompeo, after just WEEKS as Secretary of State, has already helped secure a foreign policy VICTORY for President Trump, with the release of three Americans from North Korea.
And, he’s positioned himself as a key player in the upcoming U.S./North Korea peace summit.
It looks like President Trump has found someone just like him, with the same winning attitude and unstoppable work ethic!
Mike Pompeo has hit the ground running in his first weeks atop the State Department, drawing a stark contrast with his predecessor by taking a decidedly public approach to his role as chief diplomat.
Pompeo has already notched early wins for President Trump’s foreign policy agenda, positioning himself as a key player in next month’s historic summit with North Korea.
He has also pledged to restore morale among State employees, who were deeply unhappy with the way Rex Tillerson managed the department.
The early moves from Pompeo have impressed even those who did not support his nomination for secretary of State.
“To the extent that he says he’s going to be supportive of a strong, robust State Department and of the State Department’s structure, to the extent that he’s had — we applaud him getting the Americans back from North Korea,” Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told The Hill. “Those are all positive things.”
Pompeo, who was formerly Trump’s CIA director, took over at State on April 26, immediately departing on a tour through the Middle East to raise alarm over what the administration views as a growing threat from Iran.
This week, Pompeo spent 13 hours in North Korea hammering out the agenda for Trump’s historic meeting with Kim Jong Un, Pyongyang’s leader. The summit is set to take place on June 12 in Singapore.
He capped off the dramatic trip by returning to Washington with three American prisoners who had been held since 2015 in North Korea.
The high-stakes missions indicate that Pompeo is more in sync with Trump that Tillerson ever was.
“What we have seen in the last week is this is foreign policy on Trump time,” said Jim Carafano, a foreign policy expert at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation who worked on Trump’s landing team at State. “That’s what Pompeo is paid to do and, man, that’s what he’s doing.”
Pompeo has also interrupted his travels to connect with career civil servants and foreign affairs officers within the State Department. Addressing employees at the start of May, he promised to restore the department’s “swagger” and roam away from the department’s seventh floor — the spot where the secretary and his immediate staff are located, and where Tillerson is said to have spent most of his time.
“The United States diplomatic corps needs to be in every corner, every stretch of the world, executing missions on behalf of this country, and it is my humble, noble undertaking to help you achieve that,” Pompeo said.
Pompeo’s remarks followed months of staff exits and rumblings of declining morale under the leadership of Tillerson, who kept a distance from rank-and-file employees and the press and kept his decision-making confined to a small group of advisers.
“There is a more positive buzz around the corridors since Tillerson left,” said one former official who keeps in touch with existing employees.
Pompeo has also reversed one of Tillerson’s more unpopular policies, which was a hiring freeze on spouses of employees at overseas embassies.
“I think he’s doing many of the right things at the personnel level,” said Peter Harrell, a former State Department official during the Obama administration who worked on sanctions policy.
Many observe that Pompeo entered the department with a few advantages that allowed him transition easily into the role.
Once a member of Congress, Pompeo came into the administration with an intimate understanding of the workings of government — something his predecessor lacked.
He also led the CIA for the first year of the Trump administration, which afforded him a deeper understanding of foreign operations as well as the opportunity to forge a relationship with the president. Pompeo used to deliver many of Trump’s daily intelligence briefings.