Trump puts his trust in Pompeo
CIA director has escaped the various dramas affecting the Executive Branch
WASHINGTON — CIA Director Mike Pompeo enjoys President Donald Trump’s trust like few others. So it is little surprise that Trump entrusted Pompeo with a crucial mission: Go and sit down with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un.
Other CIA directors have been close to sitting presidents, but the Trump-Pompeo chemistry is noteworthy, given his relationship with some other members of his team. It seems to be warm and free of drama.
“They hit it off,” said Sen. Pat Roberts, who, like Pompeo, is a Republican from Kansas. Roberts described Pompeo as a straight shooter. “I think the president likes that, quite frankly.”
The enduring, close relationship between Pompeo and Trump is exceptional in a White House roiled by firings and infighting. Trump had few others to turn to for the secret mission earlier this month. He had fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced national security adviser H.R. McMaster with John Bolton, who had yet to take up his post.
So Trump told Pompeo to fly to Pyongyang and iron out details of an upcoming summit with Kim about his nation’s nuclear program. The TrumpKim summit, the date and venue of which have not been settled, could be one of the signature foreign policy achievements — or failures — of his presidency.
The chemistry between Trump and Pompeo seems to be a mixture of comfort and personality, with a dash of presidential admiration for Pompeo’s military bearing.
“The president seems to value the opinions and advice from those in the military, and Director Pompeo is a West Point graduate, served in the Army,” said Sen. Jerry Moran, the junior senator from Kansas. Pompeo served six years as a congressman from a district that encompasses Wichita.
For the nearly 15 months that Pompeo was CIA director, he has appeared several times a week at the White House to offer Trump the Presidential Daily Brief, an intelligence assessment of the key events of the moment.
That has given Pompeo more face time with Trump than practically any other senior member of his administration — with the exception of Vice President Mike Pence.
David Priess, a former CIA officer who has written a book about the daily intelligence reports at the White House, said Pompeo and Pence have both stayed above the political fray.
“I don’t know who else has spent enough quality time with this president without having a scandal or reports of screaming matches and offers to resign and all of that,” Priess said. “It makes sense that the person in the national security sphere who would be the emissary speaking for the president and having that comfort level with the president would be Mike Pompeo.”
Trump cast flowers Pompeo’s way all day Wednesday. In an early morning tweet, he confirmed that “Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea last week. Meeting went very smoothly and a good relationship was formed. Details of Summit are being worked out now. Denuclearization will be a great thing for World, but also for North Korea!”
During a working lunch with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Trump’s estate in Florida, the president said Pompeo got along with the North Korean leader “really well, really great. … He is that kind of guy, he is really smart but he gets along with people.”
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway also noted that Pompeo “has become a very trusted adviser to the president.”