In many regards the transfer of the CIA Director to the Position of Secretary of State is a natural continuum.  Most career foreign office CIA operatives work under the auspices of being State Department personnel.  The CIA and State Department are inherently connected.

[A familiar reference would be, the synergy of Leon Panetta and Hillary Clinton during their Libya and Syria operations in 2010, 2011, 2012.]

Today Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives at Foggy Bottom (State HQ) in Washington DC to meet the diplomatic corps.  He delivered introductory remarks:

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[Transcript] DEPUTY SECRETARY SULLIVAN: Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for being here. It’s a great honor to be here to introduce our new Secretary of State. Before I do so, I wanted to thank all of you, each and every one of you, for your hard work over the last six weeks. The pace of world events doesn’t pause to allow the United States Government to change from one secretary of state to another, but it’s because of your dedication and professionalism that this department has continued to meet its mission for the American people. So thank you to all of you for all you’ve done the last six weeks. (Applause.)

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President Trump’s MAGAnomic team have announced a 30-day extension for the Steel (25%) and Aluminum (10%) tariffs for the European Union, Canada and Mexico.

Also, after a prior agreement with South-Korea, the “KORUS” deal, team U.S.A. has also reached an agreement in principle with Australia, Argentina and Brazil which will be finalized in next 30 days.

Via Wall Street Journal – President Donald Trump has decided to postpone decisions about imposing steel and aluminum tariffs on the European Union and other U.S. allies until June 1, a senior administration official said.

In addition to announcing the delay, the White House is expected to say Monday evening that it has finalized a deal to exempt South Korea from the tariffs, mirroring details that have been previously released by the U.S. Trade Representative’s office.

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The Senate voted Thursday to confirm CIA chief Mike Pompeo as President Trump’s next secretary of state.  Secretary Pompeo was confirmed on a 57-42 vote.  All Republicans present voted to confirm Pompeo. Seven Democrats voted yes.

After the vote, Pompeo was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito in the West Conference Room of the Supreme Court:

I am pleased with the Senate’s confirmation of Mike Pompeo to serve as our country’s top diplomat. Having a patriot of Mike’s immense talent, energy, and intellect leading the Department of State will be an incredible asset for our country at this critical time in history. He will always put the interests of America first. He has my trust. He has my support. Today, he has my congratulations on becoming America’s 70th Secretary of State.

~ President Donald J Trump

Noted in this interview is discussion that a new batch of text messages between FBI agent Peter Strzok and DOJ/FBI lawyer Lisa Page have been sent by the DOJ to the State Department. Understanding the public and congressional release process, this would indicate the DoS needs to sign-off on potential classified information within the texts.

Often, amid our frustration, we forget there’s an actual process for releasing information; it’s not simply a matter of current DOJ or FBI officials trying to block the release.  I will bet a donut the next batch of Page/Strzok messages outline some connective tissue to DoS.

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Is military action eminent? The White House has informed national media there will be a Presidential Address tonight at approximately 9:00pm from the White House.

“A short time ago, I ordered the United States Armed Forces to launch precision strikes on targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad,” Trump said. “A combined operation with the armed forces of France and the United Kingdom is now underway.”

UPDATE 9:40pm EST – Airstrikes by combined forces from the United States, France and the U.K. have begun against elements of Syrian Bashir Assad forces in response to prior use of chemical weapons.

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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson did an excellent job representing the professional and deliberate diplomatic approach of the U.S. and President Trump administration.  His personal view toward foreign service on behalf of the U.S. was exemplary, and deserves high praise.

Having said that, as President Trump stated earlier today, there was also more than a tinge of disunity between the advocated views of Tillerson and the views of the Commander in Chief toward economic national security.   At times the fractures between policy perspectives were visible.  Over time those differences became more obvious.

As Secretary of the DoS Rex Tillerson supported the Paris Climate Treaty; the President did not; Secretary Tillerson supported the Obama administration’s Iran deal; the President did not; Tillerson was more apologetic toward lax immigration policy; the President is not; and there were other visible departures visible surrounding the use of economic leverage to achieve national security advancements, specifically on the issue of China and North Korea policy.

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Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is scheduled to hold a press conference moments from now to discuss current events including his exit from the Dept. of State and his replacement by CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

UPDATE: Video Added

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President Trump delivers remarks to the media while departing the White House heading to California.   President Trump discusses the replacement of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State with CIA Director Mike Pompeo; and the nomination of Gina Haspel to be the new CIA Director.

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This is just too rich. Seriously.

From the insufferable Iran deal… to the appeasement “Russian Reset”… to the Libya fiasco… to the rise of ISIS… to installing the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt… to the explosion of terrorism in Yemen… to civil war in Syria… to the crisis in Ukraine… to the 2010 State Department apology tour (WikiLeaks cables scandal)… to their inability to stop North Korean nuclear ambitions and the rise of China as an influential power… there were/are zero foreign policy successes in eight years of the Obama administration.

There was not a single Obama foreign policy initiative that had any success. Every single place where the prior administration put their attention, the results were complete failure, crisis, chaos and worse conditions in the aftermath. That’s the 2009-2017 reality.

Today it is discovered that fifty of the most well known Obama foreign policy officials  have come together to form a think-tank group called “National Security Now“. Their singular mission is to be the “resistance” to the Trump administration’s foreign policy. You have to see the names to recognize how bad these people were at policy:

♦Ben Rhodes ♦Susan Rice ♦Samantha Power ♦Denis McDonough ♦Tom Donilon ♦Tony Blinken ♦Jen Psaki and more. The list is a veritable ‘who’s-who’ of short-sighted foreign policy, ineptitude and diplomatic failure. There’s literally not a success between them, and they are uniting together to advocate against President Trump.

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