Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview on Sunday that he was not at all concerned about a fallout stemming from the Trump administration’s trade tariffs and immigration policy.
“I am not at all concerned that anyone in the world can look at the United States and understand it to be anything but a beacon of hope, democracy and freedom,” Pompeo said in the exclusive CNN interview. “We have a long history of that and it has continued under the Trump administration.”
He continued his defense of the administration’s policy on several other issues touched upon during the interview, including diplomacy with North Korea, Russia’s election interference, and trans-Atlantic tensions.
Pompeo stressed that pictures of children separated from their parents at the border as well as levies imposed on allies caused only short-term furor which is easily outweighed by the U.S.’ longstanding record on trade and humanitarian issues.
“I have the amazing blessing of being the foreign minister for the most generous nation in the history of civilization,” Pompeo told CNN, adding that the State Department and other agencies were working to address the cause of illegal immigration.
On other issues, such as North Korea and the Trump-Kim summit, the Secretary of State said he believed Kim Jong-un is genuinely interested in abandoning his nuclear ambitions. He echoed President Donald Trump’s belief that the isolated regime is willing to give up its nuclear weapons program, but failed to give a deadline on how long he was giving Pyongyang to show it is serious about disarmament.
Pompeo further commented on the upcoming July summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, maintaining that the State Department team was working to make sure that meeting is successful as well. The secretary will accompany Trump next month to Europe for the NATO summit.
On the rift with Europe over trade tariffs, Pompeo said reports were “most overstated” and added that the U.S. was working with allies toward “achieving a shared set of objectives.”
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