Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has emerged as an official
staunchly loyal to President Trump. Pompeo has worked
to stonewall House Democrats in their impeachment investigation and refused
to testify in the inquiry, but that may not be enough to keep him out of
trouble with the president. Reports from current and recent administration officials
indicate that Mr. Trump is not happy that many of Pompeo’s subordinates are
speaking to Congress despite the Secretary’s instructions not to do so.
NBC
News reports that “four current and former senior administration officials”
have said that the president blames Secretary of State Pompeo for his appointments
of several State Department officials who have recently testified about the
Trump Administration’s mishandling of the foreign aid package to Ukraine. In
particular, Mr. Trump is reportedly upset about the appointment of Bill Taylor,
the Chargé d’Affaires Ad Interim For U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine whose testimony
to House investigators established a quid pro quo in which the Trump
Administration demanded favors from Ukraine to release the congressionally
appropriated aid. Taylor
was appointed temporary head of the Ukraine embassy last June after
Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch was recalled.
A senior official said that the opinion inside the White House
“just felt like [Pompeo should] ‘rein your people in.’”
The impeachment inquiry has put Pompeo in a difficult
position as the head of a federal department that now questions his leadership
and as an advisor to a president who demands unflinching loyalty. With State
Department officials alleging wrongdoing that Pompeo must have been aware of,
the secretary is walking a tightrope.
“He feels like he's getting a bunch of blame from the
president and the White House for having hired all these people who are turning
against Trump,” an unnamed official said of Pompeo, “and that it's the State
Department that is going to bring him down, so it's all Pompeo's fault.”
Back in October, Trump
told reporters that Pompeo had made a mistake hiring Taylor, who he called
a “Never Trumper.” Two days later, Pompeo was conspicuously absent from the
national security team that was present when a US military force launched a
raid that killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Pompeo was home in Kansas
for a friend’s wedding.
Pompeo reportedly defended himself to the president by saying
that the State Department is a large agency where he cannot be expected to know
and control every employee. Nevertheless, sources say that “Pompeo feels under
siege” and continues to be “iced out.” He is still present for meetings, but
Trump listens to him less.
From the other side, Pompeo has lost credibility with State
Department employees for not standing up to the unethical behavior of President
Trump and his shadow diplomatic team. National Security Advisor Michael Bolton
reportedly pushed back on the quid pro quo scheme, but there have been no reports
that Pompeo tried to advise the president against the plan. He also stood by
while Rudy Giuliani and his cohorts allegedly conducted a disinformation and
character assassination campaign against Marie Yovanovitch. Ambassador Mike
McKinley resigned over Pompeo’s refusal to defend Yovanovitch.
At its core, the friction between Trump and Pompeo is based
on the fact that good people were appointed to positions in the State Department.
These good people objected to the unethical conduct of the president, Rudy
Giuliani, and others such as Gordon Sondland. If there had been no wrongdoing
in Trump’s diplomacy, there would have been no reason for officials in the State
Department to blow the whistle, but now Pompeo gets the blame for State
Department employees showing disloyalty by blowing the whistle on the president’s
scheme.
Originally published on The
Resurgent
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