Pompeo blasts media coverage of Trump foreign policy

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized the press for what he characterized as unfair treatment of the Trump administration’s foreign policy during an interview on Fox News on Sunday.

Pompeo said the media didn’t tell positive stories about what he said were Trump’s accomplishments, but said voters “will come to see that the world is safer and their lives are more secure as a result of the way President Trump has done it.”

Pompeo made the remarks during an interview with Mark Levin, who had asked if he thought the press understood the significance of the deal brokered by Trump in which Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are launching formal diplomatic relations with Israel.

“I couldn’t tell you if they understand it,” Pompeo replied.

“If they do, it’s willful deceit to the American people how they speak about this,” the secretary said of the press.

“I’ve watched the accomplishments we’ve achieved,” he continued. “I could tick off half a dozen here as we sit, right, the strike against Qassem Soleimani, the change to the Middle East, the economic power that we have used to influence our allies and friends to be partners with our friends and to deny resources to regimes like the one that sits in Iran.”

“We don’t hear those stories very often in the traditional media outlets, whether that’s The Washington Post or The New York Times or wherever it may be,” Pompeo later said. “But I’m confident that the American people will come to see that the world is safer and their lives are more secure as a result of the way President Trump has done it.”

Soleimani was the Iranian general killed in an American drone strike at the beginning of this year in Iraq that was ordered by Trump.

Trump’s approval rating on foreign policy sits at just 44 percent in the RealClearPolitics index of polls, which is just below his overall approval rating of 45.3 percent.