MIKE POMPEO/SECRETARY OF STATE/STATE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “As President Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, prepares to face lawmakers for his second major confirmation hearing as a Trump nominee, scores of former diplomats are urging lawmakers to ‘focus public attention on the urgent need to restore the power and influence of American diplomacy.’ In an open letter to Sens. Bob Corker and Robert Menendez — the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, respectively — over 200 retired US diplomats pleaded for a congressional effort to ensure the State Department has the personnel and resources it needs to carry out its mission…Among the letter’s signatories are senior diplomats who’ve served under Republican and Democratic presidents in posts around the world. The majority were career officials, and all served as either ambassadors, assistant secretaries of state, or under secretaries of state. One of the authors, Amb. Bill Burns, attained the rank of deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration.”
-Laura Koran, “More than 200 former diplomats sound alarm about diplomacy under Trump,” CNN Politcs, CNN.com, Mar. 29, 2018 12:27pm