Hours before his departure, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo canceled his last trip abroad amid a torrent of global criticism against President Donald Trump, including U.S. allies that Pompeo was supposed to meet.
The top US diplomat was scheduled to see NATO’s secretary general and Belgium’s foreign minister in Brussels, according to the State Department. But he also canceled a second stop in Luxembourg, whose foreign minister called Trump “a political pyromaniac” after the president’s comments led to the violent attack on the US Capitol last week.
Pompeo also faced adverse reactions, including from American diplomats, for supporting Trump, even when other Republicans condemned his speech, blamed him for the violence and asked him to recognize Joe Biden as the elected president. For weeks, Pompeo sometimes reinforced Trump’s false allegations of widespread electoral fraud or refused to acknowledge Trump’s electoral loss, even when he oversaw the agency’s transition and met with Biden’s chosen one to succeed him, Anthony Blinken.
Although he condemned the violent mob and called for prosecution, Pompeo also defended Trump’s time in office as an incentive for the U.S.
“The story will reflect on the good work this president and our government have done,” he told a conservative radio host on Tuesday.
Senior European officials refused to meet Pompeo in the last days of the Trump administration. A European Union spokesman told ABC News that there were never any plans for Pompeo to meet EU officials like Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, or Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat.
Neither the Luxembourg embassy in Washington nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs answered the questions. Reuters reported on Tuesday that its foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, refused to meet with Pompeo and that Pompeo canceled a stop there, while AFP reported that the visit was canceled on the American side because of the conviction of Trump for Asselborn, given Pompeo’s loyalty to the president.
“Mr Trump is a criminal, a political pyromaniac who should be sent to a criminal court,” Asselborn told RTL Luxembourg last Thursday. “January 6, 2021 was a September 11 attack on democracy itself, and Trump was the one who incited him.”
The State Department cited the transition to the Biden government in canceling all official travel this week, including Pompeo’s trip to Brussels, where NATO and EU headquarters are located.
“We are fully committed to completing a smooth and orderly transition process to be completed within the next 8 days,” said spokesman Morgan Ortagus in a statement, adding that the agency is “satisfied with the level of cooperation and professionalism that it was demonstrated . “
Just a day earlier, Ortagus announced that Pompeo would meet with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Sophie Wilmès, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Belgian Deputy Prime Minister.
The decision also prevented the US ambassador on Kelly Craft’s scheduled trip to Taiwan. She was reportedly the third senior Trump official to do so in recent months, with each visit angering the Chinese government, which considers Taiwan a breakaway province. A spokesman for the Taiwanese representative office in Washington told ABC News that they “understand and respect the US State Department’s transition priorities.”
It is not clear why Pompeo wanted to make a quick trip to Brussels with less than a week in office. His brief remaining time in office is probably one of the reasons why European officials refused to meet with him, but that opposition was exacerbated by the pro-Trump crowd that sacked the Capitol last week and interrupted Congress’s certification of the victory of Biden.
This violence, fueled by Trump and other weeks of Republican attacks on the election’s credibility, was met with widespread criticism by U.S. allies, including Stoltenberg and Wilmès.
“Shocking scenes in Washington, DC. The outcome of this democratic election must be respected,” tweeted Stoltenberg on Wednesday, as the siege unfolded in Washington.
But, like Asselborn, Wilmès went further and specifically cited Trump’s role in inciting the crowd.
“Some kind of speech as a result of dividing a society can really create that kind of problem,” she told BBC News last week. “I was sad to see that President Trump, when things were going very badly and it took so long to calm people down, still said that the elections were a fraud.”
Leaders from other major US allies have said the same.
“I am very sorry that President Trump has not admitted his defeat since November – nor yesterday. Doubts about the election result have increased and this has created the atmosphere that made last night’s events possible,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Fifth.
Even Trump’s closest friends on the world stage denounced him. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday: “As the president has consistently cast doubt on the outcome of a free and fair election, I believe this was completely wrong. What President Trump said about this is completely wrong. and I unreservedly condemn encouraging people to behave in the shameful way they did on Capitol. “