Conservative Washington Post columnist Max Boot railed against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a Tuesday op-ed saying he has a "total lack of self-awareness, utter shamelessness, and cynical contempt for the truth." They are qualifications that Boot determined makes him perfect for President Donald Trump's administration.
Pompeo's "Twitter feed is a font of unintended humor; it would be funny if it weren’t so appalling. Reading Pompeo’s tweets, I keep wondering: How can he say these things with a straight — nay, scowling — face?" wrote Boot in his column.
Boot detailed at least nine examples over the past month in which Pompeo has lashed out at China and gushed over the president. Even an attempt at a fluffy tweet celebrating the birthday of the U.S. Army went awry when he celebrated, "loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage."
"Is there anyone whose behavior is more at odds with these values than the commander in chief?" asked Boot. "Pompeo hasn’t exemplified those values, either. He has placed loyalty to Trump above loyalty to the country — hence his unwillingness to protect Marie Yovanovitch, then the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, from the president’s political goon squad."
Pompeo attacked China for "propaganda" while at the same time the president is killing the Voice of America with a right-wing overseer who is remaking it as a propaganda outlet to advocate for President Donald Trump.
Pompeo celebrated Trump for upholding international human rights, but it was only weeks later that the country learned Trump told China he didn't care about their concentration camps for Uighurs.
"And that’s only one month’s worth of tweets. You can find more hypocrisy and howlers the longer you look," said Boot.
"Most of the sentiments Pompeo expresses would be anodyne coming from any other administration but are risible from this one,"he closed. "Does he know who he works for? He acts as though someone else is president — Barack Obama perhaps? That makes U.S. diplomacy nearly worthless, because the whole world can see the Grand Canyon-size gap between Pompeo’s rhetoric and Trump’s actions and beliefs. U.S. credibility has become a joke, and Pompeo keeps producing more punchlines."
Read the full editorial from Max Boot at the Washington Post.
