New York Times: US Foreign Policy Under Pompeo

The rest of the world must adjust to another US secretary of state. Donald Trump fired Rex Tillerson, long at odds with the US president, and announced plans to nominate Mike Pompeo, director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Trump suggests that Pompeo’s world views are more closely aligned with his own. Writing for the New York Times, David Sanger describes Tillerson as “a restraining influence” on the president, while Pompeo is “a true believer in President Trump’s “America First” views and a bitter critic of the Iran nuclear deal — but also a deep skeptic about whether negotiations will convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear arsenal.” Sanger goes to suggest the shift disrupts a balance of power for the administration’s national security team. Trump seems eager to change the Iran nuclear deal while negotiations just started on a possible meeting between Trump and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un. As a congressman, Pompeo was critical of Russia’s president and supported US intelligence assessments suggesting Russia interfered in the 2016 US election. In the very least, other countries hope that Pompeo’s nomination leads to coordinated messages from the US government. – YaleGlobal