Pompeo offers burst of actions, attacks before leaving State

Mike Pompeo isn't quietly fading away. In his final days as secretary of state, he's issuing orders that have caused international consternation and tweeting up a storm on his official and personal accounts to cement his legacy as a prime promoter of President Donald Trump’s “America First” doctrine.

With a potential eye on a 2024 presidential run, Pompeo has doubled down on his support for Trump, even as or Cabinet members have resigned or stayed out of sight in aftermath of Capitol violence. While House debated Trump's role in encouraging riot, Pompeo sent a tweet promoting Trump for bel Peace Prize.

Over past week, Pompeo has celebrated controversial policies that are likely to be overturned by his successor, stepped up criticism of what he believes to be unfair news cover, and he has complained about alleged censorship of conservatives on social media.

And in a sign of his post-Trump ambitions, he urged followers of his official State Department Twitter account to start following his personal one.

While it’s t unusual for outgoing Cabinet members to publicize ir successes, Pompeo has taken it a step furr by trashing his predecessors in national security community, some of whom will play prominent roles in President-elect Joe Biden's administration.

“Remember this Middle East ‘expert?’ He said it couldn’t happen. We did it,” Pompeo said in a taunting tweet featuring a video clip of John Kerry saying Arab countries would t recognize Israel without an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. Kerry, a former secretary of state, will serve as climate envoy in Biden administration.

Already most political of recent secretaries of state, Pompeo has bristled at even mildest criticism and accused his critics of being misguided, unintelligent or incompetent. He has igred advice of his own advisers by forging ahead with pet projects, some of which seem designed to complicate Biden’s presidency.

Since last Saturday, he has:

—Rescinded long-standing restrictions on U.S. contacts with Taiwan, a move that's main result is to anger China.

—Declared Yemen's Houthi rebels a terrorist organization, a step that United Nations and relief ncies say could worsen what is already a humanitarian catastrophe.

—Re-designated Cuba a “state sponsor of terrorism," an action that will impede or at least delay any attempt by Biden to improve ties with Havana.

—Accused Iran of deep and longstanding ties with al-Qaida, a prouncement that many in intelligence community find overblown given a history of animosity between two.

actions are in line with a tough “America First” policy that he has long espoused with gusto.

He has attacked China, Iran, various U.N. organizations, multilateral institutions like International Criminal Court, and bilateral treaties such as arms control accords with Russia, two of which Trump administration has withdrawn from during his time as America’s top diplomat.

On Iran, Pompeo has been particularly harsh, re-imposing all sanctions that had been eased by Obama administration after 2015 nuclear deal and adding more penalties. He also advocated for killing of a top Iranian general in Iraq at beginning of last year and has been at forefront of an effort to encour Sunni Arab states to unite against predominantly Shiite Iran.

“ foreign policy blob constantly looks for a moderate inside Iranian regime who will ‘rmalize relations’, Pompeo said this week. “ reality is you have a better chance finding a unicorn.”

Pompeo has made a sport out of trashing China, Cuba and international organizations, as well as Obama administration officials he believes were hopelessly naive in negotiating with m.

“As UN’s largest contributor, I put U.S. taxpayers and America’s interests first,” Pompeo tweeted on Monday. It was accompanied by a photo of former President Barack Obama, Kerry, Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice and Obama’s U.N Ambassador Samantha Power at United Nations. Along with Kerry, Rice and Power have also been named to prominent positions in Biden’s administration.

Yet for all efforts to celebrate Trump administration foreign policy, Pompeo and State Department have had minimal roles in some of biggest areas, with White House taking charge. That was most table in what Trump supporters see as one of his top accomplishments, improving Israel's ties with its Arab neighbors.

Led by Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, administration relentlessly promoted Israeli-Arab peace efforts, culminating in agreements for rmalization of relations between Jewish state and United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. Pompeo and State Department were largely absent from that diplomacy, with exception of Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who reports mainly to White House.

Pompeo's State Department was effectively shut out of Kushner's much-talked-about Israeli-Palestinian peace "vision" — and secretary of state was t present for rollout of ecomic part of plan in Bahrain in 2019. Pompeo and or Cabinet members were present for unveiling of political piece of proposal last January, yet his role in creating plan, which was immediately rejected by Palestinians, is murky.

On Thursday, Pompeo lauded Trump's March 2019 decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in 1967. He tweeted a video of himself and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking at Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem that night with caption: “I’ll never forget this moment.” Yet he and his delegation had been out of loop on timing of Golan Heights decision, which Trump made after consulting with Kushner just minutes before Pompeo was to meet with Netanyahu.

Similarly, State Department took a backseat in Kushner's negotiations to get Morocco to rmalize ties with Israel, which involved U.S. recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over former Spanish territory of Western Sahara.

Pompeo did void a decades-old U.S. legal opinion regarding legality of Jewish settlements on land claimed by Palestinians. On his last visit to Israel in vember, Pompeo became first secretary of state to visit a settlement and on Thursday proudly promoted a West Bank wine named after him.

“L’Chaim to Pompeo wine!” Pompeo said on Twitter.