Trump visits State Dept for first time to swear in Pompeo

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Wednesday made his first visit to the State Department to attend the ceremonial swearing-in of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Pompeo, the former CIA director, has replaced Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon executive fired unceremoniously by Trump in March after months of personality and policy clashes.

Pompeo was confirmed last Thursday, and was officially sworn-in hours later by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito before he embarked on his first foreign trip as secretary.

Trump avoided the State Department during Tillerson’s rocky tenure, and has been slow to fill a slew of top diplomatic postings. Pompeo is promising to reinvigorate the department and restore its “swagger.”

Pompeo used the ceremony to pledge commitment to the “permanent, verifiable, irreversible dismantling of North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction program…without delay.”

“Right now we have an unprecedented opportunity to change the course of history on the Korean Peninsula,” he told his new colleagues.

“We’re in the beginning stages of the work. And the outcome is certainly yet unknown.

“But one thing is certain,” Pompeo said. “This administration will not repeat the mistakes of the past. Our eyes are wide open. It’s time to solve this once and for all — a bad deal is not an option.”

He added, “The American people are counting on us to get this right.” Pompeo, in his former role as CIA chief, traveled to Pyongyang last month to meet Kim Jong Un and lay the groundwork for an upcoming summit between Trump and the North Korean leader.