Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the division he leads are trolling President Donald Trump on Twitter. It’s virtually definitely unintentional, nevertheless it’s taking place nonetheless.
President Donald Trump is combating the 2020 election outcome tooth and nail, submitting lawsuits towards key states and urging officers to cease counting legally solid votes. It’s deeply undemocratic — and, some would argue, autocratic — and it’s the exact sort of habits the US State Division would loudly and publicly condemn if it had been taking place in another nation.
The factor is, Pompeo and the State Division are doing that precise factor at this very second: calling out different international locations and their leaders on Twitter and elsewhere for trying to rig their elections and undermining the democratic course of.
It’s inflicting a noticeable split-screen second: Pompeo, a staunch Trump ally who has brazenly campaigned for the president’s reelection whereas in workplace, is blatantly ignoring his boss’s undemocratic habits whereas criticizing it elsewhere.
And the unintentional result’s that it appears to be like like Pompeo and the State Division are principally simply subtweeting Trump all day lengthy.
Take Pompeo’s tweet on Thursday afternoon. A brand new report launched by the Group for Safety and Co-operation in Europe, a worldwide democracy-promoting physique, discovered that Belarus’s August election wasn’t free or honest. Pompeo, as the highest American diplomat, known as consideration to it.
Whereas he touched on post-election violence directed primarily by President Aleksandr Lukashenko, who’s doing no matter he can to maintain his grip on energy, his actual message got here within the closing line: “Belarusians deserve the fitting to find out their very own path by way of free and honest elections.”
The @OSCE Moscow Mechanism report particulars rampant abuses in Belarus associated to the fraudulent August ninth election. We name for an finish to violence towards peaceable protesters. Belarusians deserve the fitting to find out their very own path by way of free and honest elections.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) November 5, 2020
Let that sink in: That’s Pompeo — who has defended Trump time and time once more — saying the US calls on Belarus to let the general public’s votes depend and decide the results of the election. That may be a milquetoast, professional forma assertion in another context; it’s one secretaries of state make on a regular basis.
However with Trump delegitimizing the American election in actual time, Pompeo’s tweet smacks of hypocrisy.
It’s not the one time Pompeo has accomplished this. On Monday, proper earlier than Election Day within the US, Pompeo condemned efforts by Tanzania’s president to rig his nation’s election. “We urge authorities to totally handle issues of irregularities and can evaluate allegations of using pressure towards civilians,” Pompeo wrote.
We’re deeply involved by reviews of election irregularities, politically motivated arrests, and violence throughout Tanzania’s elections final week. We urge authorities to totally handle issues of irregularities and can evaluate allegations of using pressure towards civilians.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) November 2, 2020
Once more, that’s fairly wealthy coming from a Trump crony. Trump has stated nothing about armed protesters gathering on the Maricopa County polling heart in Arizona to demand a continued vote depend, despite the fact that officers safely inside had been doing simply that.
That’s not the violence taking place in Tanzania — not by a protracted shot — however it’s intimidation. Pompeo would doubtless categorical concern about such an occasion if it had been taking place in Tanzania, however is silent about it taking place in Arizona.
After which there’s a press release by the US Embassy within the Ivory Coast on Wednesday, which “condemns the violence of the election interval” in that nation. It’s good for the US to try this, nevertheless it’s the primary line within the second paragraph that reads like a straight-up troll of America’s scenario.
“America calls on Cote d’Ivoire’s leaders to indicate a dedication to the democratic course of and the rule of legislation,” it reads, utilizing the official identify of the nation.
It’s exhausting to learn that sentence and never consider what Trump is doing: suing states to subvert the vote and even prematurely declaring victory, regardless of not having gained (at the least not but).
Put collectively, it’s an unintentionally unhealthy search for Pompeo. Right here he and his company are, criticizing the world’s poor dealing with of democracy whereas watching the US president do the identical factor at residence.
It’s additionally a foul search for America. Trump’s habits means it’ll be tougher for the US to inform different international locations to abide by democratic norms. If the US doesn’t comply with these norms, why ought to others?
The tweets, then, are amusing in what they signify: a Trump ally unaware of the blistering critique he’s unleashing. However what’s not humorous is what it says in regards to the US proper now: Its personal president isn’t doing significantly better than the undemocratic leaders its State Division is lambasting.