The intended stop in Luxembourg had not been publicly released by the State Department, which announced on Monday that the top US diplomat would make his last trip abroad in Brussels. Less than 24 hours later, they said the trip was canceled.
State Department sources told CNN that officials in Luxembourg canceled planned meetings with Pompeo before Monday’s trip was announced, but that the entire trip was not going the way Pompeo and his team had imagined, especially due to the criticism of President Donald Trump faced by world leaders after the Capitol invasion.
According to Monday’s announcement, Pompeo was scheduled to meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmès, who also condemned the attack. mortal.
“Shocking scenes in Washington, DC The outcome of this democratic election must be respected,” said Stoltenberg on Twitter on the day of the riot.
A NATO spokesman told CNN that Pompeo called Stoltenberg on Tuesday to inform him of the trip’s cancellation.
And Luxembourg’s Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Jean Asselborn, spoke harshly to the President of the United States following the attack he and his allies incited.
“There is not much you can do as secretary of state when there are only a few days left, the president is being impeached and the world is looking with horror,” said a State Department official familiar with the planning and cancellation of the trip.
A former senior State Department official said he was happy that the trip was canceled after Trump encouraged protests last week, and that they expect U.S. relations with European nations to be quickly resumed by Biden’s new team.
“They are in the last days of the Trump administration. I am happy that they did that,” John Heffern, former assistant secretary of state for European and Euro-Asian affairs, said of the canceled meetings. “I don’t think it’s a long-term problem. I hope we’ll never have a secretary of state like this again, or a president like this or a relationship like this with Europe again.”
State Department spokesman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement on Tuesday that the trip was being canceled due to the need to work on the Biden transition.
“We expect a plan from the next government soon to identify career officials who will remain in positions of responsibility on a temporary basis until the Senate confirmation process is completed for new employees,” said Ortagus. “As a result, we are canceling all trips planned for this week, including the secretary’s trip to Europe.”
However, two officials familiar with the transition said there was no need to cancel the trip to facilitate a smooth transition.
As part of the cancellation of “all planned trips”, the trip by US Ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft, to Taiwan has also been canceled.