The secretary of state is scheduled to speak about U.S. foreign policy at 4 p.m. Thursday at the Sumter County Fairgounds, 7620 FL-471.
BUSHNELL – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is coming to Central Florida Thursday.
Pompeo is scheduled to speak about U.S. foreign policy at 4 p.m. at the Sumter County Fairgrounds, 7620 FL-471 in Bushnell.
The event is free and open to the public, according to a State Department official. Doors will open at 2 p.m. and close at 3:30 p.m.
Pompeo’s visit will come just weeks after tensions spiked between the U.S. and Iran.
The United States ordered a drone strike on Jan. 3 in Baghdad that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani. Iran vowed to avenge the general’s death and responded with a rocket attack on U.S. military bases in Iraq. There were no reported casualties.
Relations with Iran have thrust Pompeo, the president’s chief foreign affairs adviser, into the headlines.
This isn’t his first post in the Trump administration.
From January 2017 to April 2018, Pompeo served as the CIA director under President Donald Trump. Trump nominated him as the secretary of state The U.S. Senate confirmed him in a 57-42 vote in April 2018.
Before his role leading the CIA, Pompeo served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011 to 2017 representing Kansas’ 4th Congressional District.
He’s also an Army veteran and a lawyer and holds a Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School.
The 56-year-old is Trump’s second secretary of state. Pompeo succeeded former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, whose relationship with the president began to deteriorate in late 2017.