CIA Director Mike Pompeo’s expected move to lead the State Department is likely to lead to harder-line policies toward Iran and North Korea, though his ability to shape policy under President Donald Trump remains to be seen.
Pompeo forged a close bond with the mercurial President through the daily intelligence briefings, which the former Republican congressman from Kansas delivers in person three to four times a week, White House officials have told CNN.
But Pompeo’s ability to move beyond reporting on events to shaping them by creating policy and working with allies remains to be seen, lawmakers and analysts said. Some suggested his close alignment with Trump means policies aren’t likely to change.
Will Pompeo push back against Trump?
Others said Pompeo’s ability to influence a mercurial and impulsive President — and push back when he disagrees on a policy issue — is another open and crucial question.
“The fact that Trump and Pompeo like and respect one another could mean nothing or it could mean everything with respect to Pompeo’s impact and influence on Trump,” said Aaron David Miller, a vice president of the Wilson Center.
“The lesson of Tillerson is… do not disagree with the President publicly,” Miller said, alluding to the way Tillerson split with Trump on the Iran nuclear deal, the administration’s approach to Mexico and a host of other issues.
“The question about Pompeo is whether he’s prepared to push back privately when he disagrees with the President,” Miller said. “If Pompeo is going to be an enabler, then all we’ve done is replace a moderate voice who’s been ignored with a hawkish enabler who will simply echo and reinforce the President.”
Pompeo will be grilled on his policy positions when he comes before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for a confirmation hearing. Senator Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who heads the committee, told CNN he expects that to happen in April.
In the meantime, the sudden nature of the announcement has left foreign allies, lawmakers and others scrambling for a sense of how the administration’s policies might change under the 54-year-old from Orange, California.
In the immediate term, as foreign diplomats sift through Pompeo’s pronouncements reflecting hostility to the Iran nuclear deal, some equivocation about Russia’s interference in the US presidential election and a gimlet-eyed view of the North Korean threat, they say they aren’t sure, at this point, who they should be reaching out to or speaking with, even as a series of important meetings loom.
Tillerson’s chief of policy planning had been due to lead talks about the Iran nuclear deal this week in Vienna. Tillerson had also been set to engage in talks on North Korea Friday with the Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers.
