State Department: Giuliani speaks only for himself when he talks about foreign policy
WASHINGTON—The Trump administration sought to distance itself Monday from Rudy Giuliani’s dramatic public statements about Iran and North Korea, saying that President Donald Trump’s new lawyer does not speak for the president on matters of foreign policy.
Since joining Trump’s legal team last month and becoming its public face, Giuliani has raised eyebrows for a series of startling assertions not only about his legal strategy and the special counsel investigation, but also about global affairs and Trump’s policies. That spurred widespread confusion over whether the former New York mayor, now on Trump’s payroll, was disclosing information he’d been told by the president, stating U.S. government policy or merely describing his own impression of events.
“He speaks for himself and not on behalf of the administration on foreign policy,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Monday.
It was the clearest sign to date that Trump’s administration is seeking to draw a line between itself and Giuliani on matters of government policy, even as he continues to act as his spokesman on matters related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. It comes as Trump prepares for a series of highstakes moments in the coming weeks on Iran, North Korea and the Mideast conflict—the type of delicate and potentially explosive regions where events can easily be upended by an errant remark by an emissary of the U.S. president.
Giuliani’s perplexing and sometimes conflicting remarks have increasingly become a cause of consternation for Trump’s aides. Asked last week whether Giuliani’s portfolio included foreign policy, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said simply, “Not that I’m aware of.” And on Friday, even Trump seemed peeved by the attention Giuliani’s off-message comments were attracting, telling reporters that the former prosecutor had just come on board and was still working to “get his facts straight.”
Trump was referring to his new attorney’s statements about the $130,000 hush payment to a porn star that had contradicted Trump’s past comments. Yet Giuliani’s remarks have been watched with equal concern at the State Department, the Pentagon and other national security agencies, starting last week when he said on television that North Korea would release three Americans detained in the country.
“We got Kim Jong Un impressed enough to be releasing three prisoners today,” Giuliani told Fox News.
Although Trump has hinted that such a move could be coming, there has been no formal announcement by the U.S. government, which is in detailed talks with North Korea at the moment to plan a historic summit between Kim and Trump. The detainees have not yet been released as predicted by Giuliani.
Then on Saturday, Giuliani caused another stir when he spoke to a group that supports the overthrow of Iran’s government and said that the president was “committed” to regime change in Iran. Although Trump is sharply critical of Iran and preparing for a decision by week’s end about whether to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal, his administration has not called for overthrowing Iran’s government. U.S. officials said they were taken aback by Giuliani’s comments and did not consider them to be consistent with current Trump administration policy.