Pompeo: Team Trump Understands the Keys and Challenges To Success, Execution Will Be Key

This week marks more than just the beginning of a new year – it is the beginning of a new era for America. President Trump’s electoral victory was a decisive rejection of the lawfare, weakness, and national decline that had defined not only President Biden’s tenure, but President Obama’s as well.  Everything is in place for the next Trump Administration to bring back American greatness, as we saw in his first term, and of which I was proud to have been a part.  Here is how he and his team – and all conservatives – should be thinking about this upcoming year and how to capitalize on the incredible opportunity to deliver for the American people.

Few things will matter more in the next year than beginning the arduous but crucial process of changing how our federal bureaucracy operates.  Currently, this leviathan is filled by entrenched, career bureaucrats, most of whom are ardently opposed to the priorities of any Republican administration.  Leaks, slow rolling, and outright insubordination – much of which came from unionized employees who could not be fired – made it extremely difficult for our team in the first Trump Administration to keep America safe and execute the mission we had received from the American people.  Even though we ultimately succeeded, our steep learning curve slowed our ability to deal with this problem effectively and held back other important work.  President Trump’s stated vision of slashing excessive regulations and restructuring bureaucracies is an excellent start, and his creation of a small, efficient, and motivated Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is exactly what is needed to spark transformational change across the Executive branch.  He and his team might also consider changing the physical location of some agencies – for instance, moving the Departments of Interior and Agriculture out of Washington and into states where their work has real impact.  Above all, we need to rein in the federal government so that it once more serves the interests of the American people.  Let’s start by getting the federal workforce back to work in their actual offices.  Most Americans report every day to their workplace.  Why should federal workers (that those Americans pay through their tax dollars) be any different?

Beyond the federal bureaucracy, the incoming Trump Administration must immediately unleash the power of American energy.  By canceling the Keystone XL pipeline on Day One in 2021, and taking numerous other actions hostile to American energy providers, the Biden Administration held America’s economic future hostage while doling out payments to Green New Deal initiatives that only drove inflation higher.  The Trump Administration can fix many of these problems within its first 30 days in office: Revive the Keystone XL pipeline project, approve massive new leases for drilling and exploration, cut back the excessive regulations instituted by Team Biden, and pull back any funds left unspent from the Inflation Reduction Act.  Taking these steps would energize markets, increase confidence in the American economy, and pay massive dividends over the next few years by lowering the cost of energy and bringing inflation back down to where it was during the first Trump Administration.  

President Trump also has a mandate to secure our borders, and I am confident he can deliver.  Through innovative diplomacy and hard work, we managed to decrease illegal immigration during the first Trump Administration in ways nobody thought possible.  The incoming Trump Team can replicate this success by utilizing the same policies, and it should go even further by addressing the clear threat posed by transnational cartels.  We can use every available tool to convince nations that tolerating, or even doing business with, cartels will be far worse than cooperating with the United States in our mission to dismantle them.  President Trump has proposed designating the cartels as foreign terror organizations. This would be a good first step to show the world that America is serious about destroying this threat to our homeland.

Finally, it is imperative that President Trump and his team re-establish American strength on the world stage. Over the past four years, we have watched the model of deterrence built by those of us in the first Trump Administration decay due to weakness.  We now have wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. The communist regime in Beijing is emboldened despite its fiscal and economic challenges.  By standing firmly with Israel and expanding the Abraham Accords, finding a negotiated solution to the Ukraine war that does not reward Russian aggression, and building an alliance system in East Asia capable of deterring Communist China, the next Trump Administration can bring back the same peace through strength we achieved in his first term. 

These missions are critical, but they will not be easy.  Standing in the way will be a federal bureaucracy motivated to undermine Team Trump at every turn, a mainstream press eager to feed Americans a false narrative that destroys the Administration’s popular support, and narrow control of the legislative branch that could be lost if the Administration does not deliver in the first year.  The incoming team must remember to play the long game: Avoid unnecessary fights that distract from the mission, deliver on your promises, and above all, consistently present a positive, optimistic vision of what our nation can be to the American people.  If President Trump and his team are able to do that, this year will be remembered as the true beginning of the next great American epoch.

Support the work of the ACLJ as we continue to bring you expert analysis and legal action on the issues that matter most.