Mike Pompeo vows to help State Department get ‘swagger back’

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who faces as intense a slate of foreign policy challenges as any incoming top diplomat in recent memory, told the State Department’s rank-and-file Tuesday that he’s “humbled” by the chance to lead them and determined to help them get their “swagger” back.

“To stand here and look at the most important diplomatic corps in the world is enormously humbling to me,” the former CIA director told hundreds of career diplomats in the lobby of the department’s Foggy Bottom headquarters, where morale is low amid widespread fears the department was sidelined and its budgets slashed under Mr. Pompeo’s fired predecessor, former ExxonMobil Chairman Rex W. Tillerson.

Mr. Tillerson got a similarly warm welcome last year from department employees but lasted just 13 months on the job before President Trump dismissed him.

While it’s not clear where Mr. Pompeo stands on the budgets and personnel moves, he suggested to foreign service officers Tuesday he’ll at least have their back when it comes to raising the department’s inter-agency clout in the struggle for influence over Mr. Trump’s foreign policy strategy.

And he scored one coup Mr. Tillerson, who never established a close personal rapport with his boss, never managed: Mr. Pompeo revealed that Mr. Trump will make his first visit as president to the State Department building for the ceremonial swearing-in of his new secretary of state.

The new secretary, a West Point graduate and a sometime critic of the department as a Republican congressman from Kansas, sought in his very first days on the job to show he means business. Almost immediately after being sworn in last Thursday, he embarked on diplomatic trip to Brussels, Riyadh, Jerusalem and Amman — returning only on Monday and wasting little time before addressing State Department staff.

The mood was positive after his remarks, although career diplomats are watching closely to see how the new boss will manage a fast-paced set of international challenges.

In addition to increased tension with Russia, wars in Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen, and rising U.S.-China friction over trade, Mr. Pompeo is now a key voice in Mr. Trump’s looming decision on whether to pull out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a deal he excoriated in Congress. As the nation’s top diplomat, he’s likely to take much of the heat from allies who oppose a U.S. withdrawal from the accord.

And then there’s his new role as the go-to communicator between the Trump White House and nervous leaders across Asia ahead of an impending summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Mr. Pompeo already had significant influence over the administration’s foreign policy during his year at the CIA. He personally briefed Mr. Trump on daily intelligence and was sent by Mr. Trump on a secret trip last month to meet with Mr. Kim in Pyongyang while still awaiting confirmation for his new job.

But Mr. Pompeo’s new job brings with it a host of less glamorous challenges that may play an outsized role in the success or failure of his tenure.
Many key U.S. ambassadorships remain vacant more than a year after Mr. Trump took office, including such key posts in Australia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Jordan and many African nations.

Aside from his policy and personality clashes with the Trump White House, Mr. Tillerson frustrated many of his State Department employees by acceding to deep budget cuts in diplomatic and international aid programs, while pushing a disruptive management overhaul program overseen by just a handful of trusted aides.

Mr. Pompeo took a swipe at what was seen as Mr. Tillerson’s insular, media-averse style, joking at one point, “I’ll spend as little time [as possible] on the seventh floor” — where the department’s most senior executives are clustered.
Mr. Pompeo is seen to be a more conventional choice for top diplomat than Mr. Tillerson, although critics, including some Republicans, have challenged his past remarks on such issues as climate change and Islamic terrorism.

The new secretary sought to set a conciliatory tone Tuesday, telling State Department staffers a story of his days as a young U.S. Army lieutenant.

“The best lesson I ever got was from a fellow named Sgt. 1st Class Petry,” he said. “He was the first platoon sergeant in my first tank platoon.”

“When I hopped out of the jeep, [the Sergeant] said, ’Lieutenant, you’ll do well to just shut up for a while,” Mr. Pompeo said. “What I took him to be saying was that it’s important that we listen and learn, and I know that I have an enormous amount to listen to you about and to learn from you.”