Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discusses leaks and tell-all memoirs by former Trump administration officials with host Joe Lonsdale.
Opinion
Pompeo: Federal government unions should be eliminated and workers made at-will
“There should be no government unions. It's just not, it's a non sequitur. They should have rules there where they work at will, just like every other employee, they should be terminable.”
Disclosure
Pompeo: Not sure I left State Department materially better
“I must say, Joe, I, 70,000 people, a thousand days. I'm not sure I left that place materially better than where I began. We did a lot, but we had to work around and through what was the most resistant, unaccountable bureaucracy, the one that I've ever been a p…”
Opinion
Pompeo: State Department hiring should focus on merit, not DEI
“And so the State Department training and hiring program needs to be fundamentally redone, focused on mission, not on diversity, equity, and inclusion, but based on pure merit.”
Opinion
Pompeo: Prospective military recruits seek mission execution rather than equity or climate initiatives
“When you are now saying, Hey, you know what? We're going to make sure your vehicles are all carbon neutral and we're going to guarantee you a safe space. Like that is not what a kid who's thinking about joining the military is looking for. They want to go do m…”
Assertion Partly supported
Pompeo: Congress repeatedly rejected State Department budget cuts from $70B to $45B
“We proposed a budget, Joe, about two-thirds of the State Department budget think Forty five billion instead of seventy billion. And each year, both Republican and Democrats alike on Capitol Hill said, nope, we're going to give you a seventy billion.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Pompeo: Kim Jong-un walked away from agreed terms in Hanoi
“Chairman Kim kind of walked away from what we understood he had agreed to, what he had told me himself.”