WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (all times local):
12:30 p.m.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the U.S. faces an “unprecedented opportunity” on the Korean peninsula as President Donald Trump prepares to meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Speaking beside Trump at his ceremonial swearing-in Wednesday, Pompeo says the administration is in the “beginning stages of the work and the outcome is certainly yet unknown.” Trump is promising to soon reveal the timing and location for the meeting with Kim.
Trump praised Pompeo at the ceremony Wednesday as he made his inaugural visit to the State Department. Noting the applause, Trump said it was “more spirit than I’ve heard from the State Department in a long time.”
Trump has been a frequent critic of the department and its work, but Pompeo maintains close ties to the president.
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10:55 a.m.
President Donald Trump is making his first visit to the State Department to attend the ceremonial swearing-in of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Pompeo, the former CIA director, is replacing Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon executive fired unceremoniously by Trump in March after months of personality and policy clashes.
Pompeo was confirmed last Thursday, and was officially sworn-in hours later by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito before he embarked on his first foreign trip as secretary.
Trump avoided the State Department during Tillerson’s rocky tenure, and has been slow to fill a slew of top diplomatic postings. Pompeo is promising to reinvigorate the department and restore its “swagger.”
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