Trump shows up at State to welcome Pompeo

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is trying to hit reset at the State Department on the eve of a critical decision on the Iran nuclear deal and a potential summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump made his first visit to the department Wednesday for the ceremonial swearing-in of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, highlighting his relationship with the head of a Cabinet agency he largely neglected during the tenure of Rex Tillerson.

Pompeo, the top graduate of his West Point class, a former tank officer and the former CIA director, is personally close to the president and gained stature abroad after his secret visit to North Korea last month to meet with Kim.

“That’s more spirit than I’ve heard from the State Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, accompanied by his wife, Susan, gets a thumbs up from President Donald Trump after being ceremonially sworn in Wednesday at the State Department.

Department in a long time,” Trump said as he took the podium to applause from the crowd on the ornate seventh floor.

It was a tacit acknowledgement that department morale had suffered under Tillerson, who undertook an unpopular restructuring of the department before he was fired. Pompeo has repeatedly promised to reinvigorate the

department.

At the CIA, Pompeo oversaw a secret back channel to the North Korean government, and on April 1, he made a secret trip to Pyongyang to meet with Kim in advance of a potential meeting with Trump.

“Right now we have unprecedented opportunity to change the course of history on the Korean Peninsula,” Pompeo said Wednesday.

Trump has been particularly disdainful of the work done by the State Department during the Obama administration. He has savaged the Iran nuclear deal, which was largely negotiated by former Secretary of State John Kerry, and is expected to pull out of the agreement this month. He also announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate accord, another Kerry achievement. And Trump routinely excoriated Hillary Clinton and the department she led.

Trump’s budget proposals have sought to slash the department’s funding by some 30 percent and reduce its ranks. The department has many vacancies at senior positions, and Trump has yet to formally nominate people for numerous top positions.

Pompeo was officially sworn-in last week by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.