Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appearing on a monitor that was set up at the White House.
Photo: Kevin Lamarque/ReutersSecretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a prime-time address recorded against the backdrop of Israel’s holiest sites, told the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night that President Trump has made the U.S. more secure.
Mr. Pompeo praised Mr. Trump’s hard-line policies toward China, hailed his attempt to negotiate with North Korea, endorsed this decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear accord and praised the recent agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
“The primary constitutional function of the national government is ensuring that your family—and mine—are safe and enjoy the freedom to live, to work, to learn and to worship as they choose,” Mr. Pompeo said. “This president has led bold initiatives in nearly every corner of the world.”
Mr. Pompeo’s decision to address the convention in a speech that was taped Monday in Jerusalem sparked complaints by former diplomats and congressional Democrats that he had overstepped the traditional boundary between diplomacy and politics.
Rep. Joaquin Castro, the Texas Democrat who is vice chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said that he would investigate whether the address violates State Department policies and the federal Hatch Act prohibiting federal officials from engaging in political activity in their official capacity.
“I do not remember this ever happening,” Ronald Neumann, who served in three ambassadorial posts and is now president of the American Academy of Diplomacy, said of Mr. Pompeo’s address.
“The old notion was to maintain the appearance of a separation between domestic and partisan politics and foreign affairs where, as Republican Senator Arthur Vandenberg said in 1947, we must stop ‘partisan politics at the water’s edge,’” Mr. Neumann added.
A State Department official said that none of the agency’s resources or staff has been used to facilitate his appearance. The State Department didn’t respond to requests for comment on whether Mr. Pompeo’s address complied with its own legal guidelines or whether State Department lawyers had reviewed his decision.
In his address, Mr. Pompeo said the U.S. was safer because of Mr. Trump’s “America First” vision, which prioritizes the nation’s interests in international relationships and agreements.
“It may not have made him popular in every foreign capital, but it has worked,” Mr. Pompeo said.
John Negroponte, who served as deputy secretary of state during the George W. Bush administration, defended the decision to have Mr. Pompeo speak at the convention.
“The secretary of state is the senior most member of the president’s cabinet, and the president is free to ask him to speak on any manner of subject,” he said. “It may be rare, but that may be more of a matter of custom than anything else.”
The convention address, however, appears to conflict with guidance issued this year by Mr. Pompeo as well as a separate guidance issued late last year by the department’s Office of the Legal Adviser.
A Dec. 3 memo from the legal adviser said department employees are prohibited from engaging in political activities. An addendum, marked in bold, states: “Senate-confirmed presidential appointees may not even attend a political party convention or convention-related event.”
A July 24 memo from Mr. Pompeo states: “Presidential and political appointees and career SES…may not engage in any partisan political activity in concert with a partisan campaign, political party, or partisan political group, even on personal time and outside of the federal workplace.”
Mr. Pompeo, as is required for a secretary of state, was confirmed by the Senate to the post.
Mr. Pompeo has been among Mr. Trump’s most loyal aides, and his speech from Jerusalem—where the U.S. moved its embassy in 2018—is likely to appeal to evangelical Christians, an important element of the president’s constituency.
Mr. Pompeo is also among Republicans who could seek the GOP’s presidential nomination in the future.
As secretary of state, Mr. Pompeo has frequently traveled on domestic trips as well as abroad, to destinations including Florida, Indiana, Iowa and Kansas. He has held meetings with potential campaign donors and given frequent interviews to local news outlets. For many months, he was considered a strong possibility to run for a vacant U.S. Senate seat from Kansas but ultimately didn’t enter the race.
He has also used his personal Twitter account to mock Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.).
Mrs. Pelosi said Tuesday in an MSNBC interview that his decision to address the convention was appalling. The State Department declined to comment on the tweets on Mr. Pompeo’s personal Twitter account.
The custom of staying away from an overt political role has been a long one. When George C. Marshall served as President Truman’s secretary of state, from 1947 to 1949, he declined to vote on the grounds that his advice to the White House shouldn’t be influenced by his participation in the election process.
Previous secretaries of state have spent years in politics. Hillary Clinton, who served as a U.S. senator from New York, came to the post after competing unsuccessfully for the Democratic Party nomination against Barack Obama and with aspirations to become his successor. James Baker, who managed President Reagan’s 1984 re-election campaign, was secretary of state under President George H.W. Bush. Neither spoke at the political convention while serving in the office.
—Lindsay Wise contributed to this article.
Write to Michael R. Gordon at michael.gordon@wsj.com and Courtney McBride at courtney.mcbride@wsj.com
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