“Old ideas of not trading because 'they won't open their markets to us' miss the entire point of allowing goods to be imported into the United States - because we want and need them and because someone here believes that the good or service received in exchange for our dollars creates value for them.”

American politician, attorney and diplomat

Michael Richard Pompeo is an American politician, attorney, diplomat, and former U.S. Army officer. He served in Donald Trump’s first administration as director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2017 to 2018 and as the 70th United States secretary of state from 2018 to 2021. A Republican, Pompeo represented Kansas’s 4th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2011 to 2017. His public career spans law, intelligence, diplomacy, and elected office, placing him among the most visible American officials of the late 2010s and early 2020s.