Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to a West Bank settlement on Thursday is raising criticism that he used the trip to boost his own political profile amid speculation that he's eying a race for the presidency in 2024 after news leaked that his trip was being described as part of the "Pompeo Doctrine."
Pompeo is the first U.S. secretary of state to visit both a settlement and the Golan Heights, reports CNN, and during his visit he touted the Trump administration's recognition of settlements as Israeli territory and its push to help Israeli businesses in the West Bank avoid international sanctions.
"Pompeo's West Bank winery and Golan excursions have nothing to do with America's ambitions but his own in 2024," Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and CNN analyst tweeted.
A source close to Pompeo argued that anytime he's doing his job one could say he was making a play for 2024 and that his visit was in line with the administration's policy, but others, including presidential historian Michael Beschloss, saw it differently.
"A Secretary of State should not use his Senate-confirmed job to run for President," Beschloss commented.
State Department officials told reporters, they should not attribute the "Pompeo Doctrine" phrase to the department and that it was one used commonly inside Israel.
Meanwhile, Pompeo has been holding meetings at the State Department with Republican strategists and members of the conservative media, which is also sparking speculation about his ambitions, according to two sources CNN said were familiar with the talks.
"As Mike Pompeo prepares to run, he wants to sit down with people in Republican circles he has not met, or he has not talked to in a while," one of the sources said. "Over the past few weeks, they are getting more aggressive. Pompeo is trying to build out his contacts and he is doing that on every level. He wants people who can raise money, he wants people who do political consulting, he wants people who can write, and people who can talk."
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