Immediately after President Trump's new US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had been confirmed, the former CIA director wasted no time to make the most of his new position by getting on a plane to meet with leaders in Europe and the Middle East.
While Pompeo had already met with Kim Jong-un a week prior to his confirmation, the new secretary would meet with him again last Tuesday, the same day the President announced that he would be withdrawing the US from the Iran nuclear deal (otherwise referred to as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Both events are major ones for an administration that's been weighed down by one daily scandal after another for over a year since it began.
But these events, no doubt, helped the new secretary gain solid footing into his position on behalf of the Department he's now tasked to run.
Secretary Pompeo is now widely viewed as the person very much needed to restore the State Department to its former glory, which could potentially upset the President's plans.
New US Secretary of State facing challenges
For over a year since Donald Trump entered the Oval Office, the President made it very clear that he wanted to do the opposite of what Mike Pompeo now wants to do and weaken the State Department.
Pompeo's confirmation came at a time when the President was purging his Cabinet and National Security Council (NSC) of those with opposing views, ridding himself of naysayers that are already the standard for every administration.
As of now, Pompeo is at the center of what is seen as the first major historic achievement for any US president in decades, the chance to have a one-on-one sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Headed back to #DPRK at the invitation of the North Korean leadership. I look forward to planning a successful summit between President Trump and Kim Jong-un.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) May 8, 2018
For now, it seems that Pompeo has the President's ear but Politico suggests that the new secretary could actually clash with another and perhaps an even more troubling figure in the White House, Trump's new national security adviser John Bolton.
The mentioned Politico article titled: "John Bolton and Mike Pompeo Are Headed for a Clash" breaks down the ideological views of both men, suggesting that they would both eventually be butting heads in the administration.
The reasons for this is that with Bolton's hatred for bureaucrats in the government, Pompeo could be seen as an adversary and therefore a Bolton target.
With the former George W. Bush administration official's entry into the NSC, his first order of business was to start firing many NSC advisers starting with Tom Bossert and accepting the resignation of Michael Anton.
Clearly, with the rushed confirmation, there was little time to know what conflicts Pompeo would encounter within the administration, especially when the White House is too busy trial ballooning their way to an unprecedented meeting with Kim Jong Un and the backlash over ending a nuclear deal that was reportedly already working.
Another Politico article titled: "Pompeo faces a hiring obstacle course" elaborates on a more pressing issue which is whether Pompeo will be filling any vacancies at the State Department.
Both pieces appear to intersect over the mounting issues the State Department has been facing since the beginning of the new administration and the issues John Bolton's role will likely bring in as well.
The Politico article about hiring at the State Department said that positions there might not be filled until mid-2019 at the earliest.
The view gathered from both pieces, however, is that despite Pompeo coming across as a right-wing extremist ideologue in Congress, that he's been able to temper that as CIA director and now with some effort to save Foggy Bottom, as opposed to what former state secretary Rex Tillerson tried to do.
Sabotaging government bureaucracy under Tillerson
There's no doubt that Donald Trump has intentionally refused to fill in the vacancies of various agencies throughout government in order to disrupt government bureaucracy across the board.
In fact, the President's Drain the Swamp objective refers to the purging of traditional bureaucrats that he feels are preventing the US from making any progress.
This was also influenced by the President's chief strategist, Steve Bannon who came in with the transition until Trump's chief of staff John Kelly removed him last August.
Donald Trump has also shown little to no respect for the traditions or the process of government designed to help it function.
Here's Tillerson trying to reset the administration's approach to foreign policy during the first year.
Even lawmakers noticed that Sec of State Rex Tillerson had fallen in line with the President in making little effort to hire more people.
This is because Tillerson was very public about wanting to reform the Department, especially since the White House had proposed significant cuts to many of the agency's programs.
Specifically, under Tillerson, the Trump administration succeeded in not only purging it of its talent but also in making sure that the Department was prevented from functioning at its full capacity.
The administration's budget proposal last year was to cut over 30 percent from humanitarian programs which outraged lawmakers, including plenty of Republicans like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
Tillerson was adamant about the cuts even while he was lambasted by Congress which rejected the administration's request, immediately designating the submitted proposal dead on arrival.
Reports on the administration's budget proposals this year repeated the same view from Congress on both sides of the aisle that the State Department's proposal was DOA.
Here is Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) grilling Tillerson over cutting the State Department's budget to human rights programs from last year.
Democratic Sen. Menendez who is ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said this year:
"The administration should stop wasting the time of Congress and the American people with such narrow-minded, illogical proposals that have been rejected by a nonpartisan military and civilian leaders."
On the other side, House Foreign Affairs Committee chair Rep. Ed Royce (R-Cali.) also released a statement against the proposal:
"A strong, bipartisan coalition in Congress has already acted once to stop deep cuts to the State Department and Agency for International Development that would have undermined our national security.
This year, we will act again."
As if the grilling by committee members was not enough, the New York Times reported in March that Tillerson made no effort to use money that Congress secured for the Department to fight Russian meddling.
The Trump administration is already under investigation for possibly colluding with Russian officials to meddle with the 2016 Presidential Election which doesn't help the view that both the President and Tillerson have been reluctant to take any action against Russia.
But in this way, Rex Tillerson was efficient enough in his role for the Trump administration to effectively cripple the agency, until they both clashed.
Rex Tillerson clashes with Trump
But even while Tillerson was hindering the Department's function, he also wanted to do some of his own hirings for his staff but his efforts were blatantly rejected by a White House staffer, which would eventually create conflict between him and the President.
In no time at all, soon after those reports of those conflicts, President Trump made some cringe-worthy statements in front of the Boy Scouts of America, an organization that Tillerson holds in high esteem which caused the secretary to reportedly call the President, "a f-ing moron."
It's been suggested that since those reports, which Tillerson did not deny, that President Trump was looking for the right opportunity to cut ties with the former Exxon Mobile CEO.
The former state secretary also attempted to talk President Trump out of ending the Iran nuclear deal which further infuriated Trump who was determined to end it no matter what.
National security adviser HR McMaster was also said to have been trying to talk the President out of ending the deal, who was also shown the door around the same time as Tillerson.
President Trump retaliates
Pompeo's way of engaging with the President is said to be more relaxed and on Trump's terms whereas McMaster and Tillerson had a more bureaucratic standard designed for former presidents which frustrated Trump.
The administration's effort to replace both men with Bolton and Pompeo would no doubt delay any further hiring prospects for the administration.
It's been pointed out that the administration has already blackballed Republicans who initially signed Never Trump letters in 2016 and though many of them have changed their tune since Donald Trump became president, Trump's White House staff has been keeping tabs on who the President's rivals are.
The mentioned White House staffer who prevented Tillerson from hiring anyone had apparently done so because Tillerson's pick had said negative things about Trump during the campaign.
And, it's been learned that since Trump has been President, he's gone out of his way to humiliate and retaliate against his rivals.
Such was the case with Republican candidate Mitt Romney who was said to initially be considered for the Sec of State position.
But because Romney had been very public about calling out Donald Trump as a conman after he won the Republican nomination, the transition team didn't take the offer seriously.
It was largely the view that Donald Trump considering Romney for the position was just more of an effort to publicly humiliate him.
At the same time, plenty of Republicans have expressed little interest in joining the administration due to the daily scandals that come out from a chaotic White House.
Mike Pompeo's changes for State Department
In the mentioned Politico article, it's suggested that other Republican talent would not join the State Department because they lacked qualifications.
This, however, has not stopped the administration from filling in other positions as many of Trump's Cabinet nominations have been described as unqualified.
It's even been suggested that their lack of qualifications is, in fact, the main reason why they're qualified under the Trump administration.
At the same time, the article refers to the relationship between Pompeo and Trump where it's believed that the new State Secretary will have more sway with the President to hire for the Department where Tillerson could not.
Like other Cabinet officials, when Tillerson was originally nominated, it was reported that the administration had assigned aides to each Cabinet official in order to make sure they were monitored.
Politico would report, however, that by May, the President's shadow cabinet was being dismantled due to clashes with top cabinet officials.
It was said at the time that many of these aides were unqualified ideologues but were nonetheless pernicious.
The Politico article said that when Pompeo traveled overseas after his confirmation, he relied on State Department officials to take care of the logistics which is outside the closed circle that Tillerson relied on.
Those aides who initially prevented Tillerson from engaging with State Department staff were his chief of staff Margaret Peterlin and deputy chief of staff Christine Ciccone, both who immediately turned in their resignations when they learned that Tillerson had been fired.
The Politico article settles for the possibility that Pompeo could maneuver his possible preferences for hiring anti-Trump talent to the State Department and somehow make it fall in sync with the President.
But the article also mentions that quite recently, Trump vetoed his vice-President Mike Pence's pick for a national security advisor Jon Lerner, who is currently the deputy UN ambassador to Nikki Haley.
So, it's likely that Mike Pompeo might also be limited in his function as Trump's second US Secretary of State.