WASHINGTON (AP) – Mike Pompeo is not quiet. In his last days as Secretary of State, he issued orders that caused international dismay and published a storm on his official and personal accounts to consolidate his legacy as the first promoter of President Donald Trump’s “America First” doctrine.
With a potential eye on a 2024 presidential election, Pompeo has doubled his support for Trump, even though other cabinet members have resigned or remained out of sight following the Capitol violence. While the House debated Trump’s role in encouraging the uprising, Pompeo sent a tweet promoting Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
In the past week, Pompeo has celebrated controversial policies that are likely to be overthrown by his successor, stepped up criticism of what he believes is unfair news coverage and complained about alleged censorship by conservatives on social media.
And in a sign of his post-Trump ambitions, he asked followers of his official State Department Twitter account to start following his personal one.
Although it is not uncommon for Cabinet members to publicize their successes, Pompeo has gone a step further by tearing down his predecessors in the national security community, some of whom will play important roles in the administration of President-elect Joe Biden.
“Do you remember this expert from the Middle East? He said it couldn’t happen. I did it, “Pompeo said in a provocative tweet containing a video of John Kerry saying that Arab countries would not recognize Israel without an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. Kerry, a former secretary of state, will serve as climate envoy to the Biden administration.
Already the most political of recent secretaries of state, Pompey criticized even the mildest critics and accused his critics of being deceived, unintelligent or incompetent. He ignored the advice of his own advisers, continuing with pet projects, some of which seem to complicate Biden’s presidency.
Since last Saturday, he has:
—Removed long-term restrictions on US contacts with Taiwan, a move that has resulted in China’s anger.
—Houthi in Yemen has said it is rebelling as a terrorist organization, a move that the UN and aid agencies say could exacerbate what is already a humanitarian catastrophe.
—He has designated Cuba a “state sponsor of terrorism,” an action that will prevent or at least delay any attempt by Biden to improve ties with Havana.
“Iran has been accused of deep and long-standing ties to al-Qaeda, a statement that many in the intelligence community consider exaggerated, given a history of animosity between the two.”
The actions are in line with a tough “America First” policy, which he gladly supported.
He attacked China, Iran, various UN organizations, multilateral institutions such as the International Criminal Court and bilateral treaties such as arms control agreements with Russia, two of which the Trump administration withdrew from its time as America’s top diplomat.
As for Iran, Pompeo has been particularly harsh, re-imposing all sanctions that had been eased by the Obama administration since the 2015 nuclear deal and adding more sanctions. He also called for the assassination of a top Iranian general in Iraq early last year and was at the forefront of efforts to encourage Sunni Arab states to unite against the predominantly Shiite Iran.
“The foreign policy stain is constantly looking for a moderate in the Iranian regime to ‘normalize relations,'” Pompeo said this week. “The reality is, you’re more likely to find a unicorn.”
Pompeo played a sport in China, Cuba and international organizations, as well as Obama administration officials, whom he believes were undoubtedly naive in negotiating with them.
“As the largest contributor to the UN, we put American taxpayers and American interests first,” Pompeo wrote on Twitter on Monday. It was accompanied by a photo of former President Barack Obama, Kerry, Susan Rice’s national security adviser and Obama’s UN ambassador Samantha Power to the United Nations. Along with Kerry, Rice and Power were also appointed to prominent positions in Biden’s administration.
However, for all efforts to celebrate the Trump administration’s foreign policy, Pompeo and the State Department have had minimal roles in some of the largest areas, with the White House taking the lead. This was most notable in what Trump supporters consider one of his top achievements, improving Israel’s ties with its Arab neighbors.
Led by Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, the administration has steadily promoted Israeli-Arab peace efforts, culminating in agreements to normalize relations between the Jewish state and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. Pompey and the State Department were largely absent from diplomacy, with the exception of Israeli Ambassador David Friedman, who reports mainly to the White House.
Pompeo’s State Department was effectively excluded from the much-discussed “vision” of Israeli-Palestinian peace that Kushner discussed – and the Secretary of State was not present to launch the economic part of the plan in Bahrain in 2019. Pompeo and other members of the The cabinet was present at the unveiling of the political piece of the proposal in January last year, however its role in creating the plan, which was immediately rejected by the Palestinians, is murky.
On Thursday, Pompeo welcomed Trump’s March 2019 decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which he captured from Syria in 1967. He posted a video on Twitter about himself and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talking to Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem that night with the caption: “I will never forget this moment.” However, he and his delegation were outside the moment of the Golan Heights decision, which Trump took after consulting Kushner a few minutes before Pompeo met with Netanyahu.
Similarly, the State Department took place in Kushner’s negotiations for Morocco to normalize ties with Israel, which involved US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over former Spanish territory in Western Sahara.
Pompey overturned a decades-old American legal opinion on the legality of Jewish settlements on Palestinian-claimed land. On his last visit to Israel in November, Pompeo became the first secretary of state to visit a settlement and proudly promote a West Bank wine named after him on Thursday.
“L’Chaim for Pompey wine!” Pompeo said on Twitter.