Is Pompeo actually going to be confirmed?

Trump might narrowly get his man after all

Mike Pompeo.
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

It would be more than mildly disappointing if the statesman responsible for halting Kim Jong Un’s nuclear ambitions and bringing peace to the Korean Peninsula after 60 long years turned out to be a slightly oafish Tea Party lawyer from Kansas rather than Dennis Rodman. It clicked immediately after his first trip to Pyongyang: If only Nixon could go to China, then surely The Worm is the only living American weird enough to reach the pudgy basketball-loving Swiss cheese-addicted despot whose hobbies include submarine warfare and feeding his relations to dogs.

Peace is welcome regardless of who is responsible for it, which is why I was heartened when I learned that Mike Pompeo, the director of the CIA and former Republican congressman appointed to be our next secretary of state, had traveled to North Korea over Easter weekend and met with Kim Jong Un in advance of the upcoming summit at which the dictator is set to meet with President Trump. Last summer Trump was casually tweeting about nuking Pyongyang. Anything looks like progress by comparison.

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Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.