How the “Worst US Secretary of State” got its name?

In a recent Washington Post article titled “Pompeo’s pandemic performance ensures his place among the worst secretaries of state ever”, the records of Pompeo were scrutinized – ignoring the pandemic, shirking responsibilities, turning down international cooperation and scapegoating China. “It’s impossible to think of a more feckless performance since World War II (than Secretary of State Mike Pompeo)”, the article concludes. As a matter of fact, these have only touched a tip of Pompeo’s iceberg. Looking at him by whatever standard out there, be it professional ethics, vision or character, one wouldn’t challenge his perfect match with the name “The Worst US Secretary of the State”.

As the chief secretary of the United States, its top diplomat and the 4th person on the succession line of the US presidency, the secretary-of-state post enjoys an important position in the American executive branch and its political structure in general, not to mention it represents the image of the country. Putting aside work capabilities, as a senior executive official and the president’s chief foreign affairs advisor, the secretary of state has to be equipped with some basic professional ethics – act with integrity, judge people by their merit and serve the public without personal agenda. Sadly, Mike Pompeo possesses none of these.

First, Pompeo climbed up through political speculation and fawning, he is by no means worthy of the position. Pompeo was a political speculator in the 2016 presidential election, backing Republican candidate Marco Rubio at first and quickly embraced Trump after the latter gained steam on his campaign trail – that’s how he ended up on the CIA director post. But Pompeo’s ambition didn’t stop there, while serving as CIA director, Pompeo tried all he could to curry favor with Trump, and became the secretary of state after a little over one year. In an administration characterized by high frequency of job quits and firings, Pompeo managed to stand out with his speculating and fawning skills.

Second, Pompeo indulged in cronyism after becoming secretary of state, forming a clique around himself in the State Department, and negatively impacting the smooth running of the office. Impressively, Pompeo appointed his two classmates, early time business partners from the airline company as deputy secretary of state and the State Department’s legal advisor, despite the fact they have no political experience and their own abilities are called into question – bear in mind that the airline the three set up went into bankruptcy.

Moreover, as secretary of state, Pompeo has notoriously and repeatedly abused power for personal interest. On July 30, the House of Representatives launched a holistic investigation over his abuse of power in the State Department, and summoned four of his aides. Earlier, the State Department Inspector General, the watchdog over behaviors of officials, was abruptly fired, reportedly because the investigation angered Pompeo and it caused a big stir on both sides of the aisle. Pompeo’s lack of professional ethics can’t be too obvious.

As top diplomat, the secretary of state is supposed to have broad vision and strong leadership to help the president advance his foreign policy and safeguard American national interest. Contrarily, having no professional ethics whatsoever, Pompeo is never in lack of narrow vision and incapability, which constantly refreshes the lower limit of public perception of the US secretary of state.

Not having the global strategic vision needed for a secretary of state, Pompeo’s actions have severely undermined the national interest of the US. The US response to pandemic is a good case in point. Throughout history, all predecessors have sought international cooperation in times of global crisis, and fought the challenge by uniting the world and US allies in particular. Sadly, Pompeo has almost been an absentee during this pandemic except for his limited presence at White House briefings. As the Washington Post rightly pointed out, “when others in the administration are trying to contain the pandemic, it seems to Pompeo that the pandemic never took place”. When the UK offered to provide humanitarian assistance to Iran following its severe epidemic situation, Pompeo viewed the pandemic as a “tool for extreme pressure”. When China was leading the global response, and showed its willingness to work with the US, Pompeo tried time and again to politicize the virus, smear and scapegoat China. Pompeo’s vicious words and actions caused consequences not only in the US but also hampered its collaboration with other countries, making America the global epicenter of the pandemic, allowing the disease to ravage unchecked and putting millions of lives at risk.

On China policy, Pompeo attempted shamelessly to “set the tone” through a speech he recently made at the Nixon Library, alleging the failure of the engagement policy that President Nixon started, claiming that China had taken advantage of the US and vowing to adopt a “distrust and verify” policy against China. China-US relations are based on mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, rather than one side’s charity to the other. Cooperation leads to mutual benefit and confrontation brings harm to both sides. Strategic confrontation with China will do the US no good, and will inevitably undermine global security and common development. Pompeo’s botched performance has once again proved his lack of basic strategic vision, and his propositions will only lead the US policy on China astray and eventually hurt US interest.

As secretary of state, Pompeo doesn’t have what it takes to lead in the State Department. In July, democratic members in the Diplomatic Relations Committee under the House of Representatives released a 46-page report titled “Diplomacy in Crisis: The Trump Administration’s Decimation of the State Department”, accusing Pompeo of leading the State Department with CIA-styled management approach, using intimidation as a means and political faction as the standard in personnel appointment, causing huge numbers of job quits, post changes and enormous job vacancies, which led the State Department to slip into chaos. There might be some partisan motives behind the report but the plain evidence attests to the fact that the State Department under Pompeo has plunged into dysfunction, and Pompeo himself is the culprit.

Pompeo’s serious flaws in character, such as his being puffed up with self-importance, his lying nature, and his disregarding justice for personal interest, have all contributed to his descending to “the worst Secretary of State”. His self-conceit was fully exposed when he attempted to re-set the tone for his country’s China policy; and his lying nature not only hurt his image as America’s top diplomat but also put America’s reputation at risk. When asked whether the coronavirus was man-made in a recent video connection with the Associated Press, Pompeo said conclusively that science showed that it was manufactured. After being refuted by the anchor, he quickly denied his own remarks, without even the slightest shame on his face. Pompeo’s lies didn’t stop there, however, he’s been calling white black and lying time and again on multiple issues related to China.

The post of secretary of state has become a means for Pompeo’s personal gains, it has slipped to a platform for Pompeo to gain political points. In order to consolidate his influence in the hawkish camp and among conservative Republicans, Pompeo went all out to hype up China issues almost around the clock, flaunting his “uniqueness” of being tough on China without paying any regard to fact and reason, or the bigger picture of China-US relations – Pompeo is sacrificing the wellbeing of Americans and America’s national interest for his own political good.

Measuring by professional ethics, political vision and personal character, one could find no other secretary of state throughout the American political history that is like Pompeo, who maximizes his own political gains with bigotry, narrow-mindedness, ignorance and delinquency as well as his political faction. At a time when US domestic politics becomes increasingly polarized and its foreign policy more aggressive, the rise of unscrupulous politicians of Pompeo’s kind will drive American foreign policy more irrational.

Hopefully, the “Worst Secretary of State” will serve as a lesson for his successor, and the lower limit record he created will not be challenged.