On Monday, US President Donald Trump played down an investigation into his Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, after he was suspected of having caused a government employee to run his dog, saying, “It is better to be on the phone talking to world leaders.”
Trump at the same time defended the dismissal of the inspector general who was conducting an investigation into a matter linked to the US Secretary of State, according to Reuters.
Commenting on the issue and its decisions, Trump stressed, “I have the full right as president to put an end to the duties of the inspector at the State Department”.
The US President stated that he did not know Steve Linick, the State Department’s inspector general who dismissed him Friday at the request of Pompeo.
“I’ve never heard of him,” he told reporters, adding that his predecessor Barack Obama appointed him, explaining, “A lot of these people are appointed by Obama and I simply get rid of them”.
According to Democrats, Linick, charged with monitoring the intervention of the executive branch in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and independently, was about to start an investigation into complaints indicating that Pompeo asked a government employee to take his dog for a walk or bring his clothes from the laundry, and even to make a reservation in restaurants on his behalf.
Trump initially said, “I was not aware of this investigation,” but he later supported his minister.
Trump considered Pompeo a “brilliant man,” adding “he is a man charged with discussing war and peace with very, very important countries, who possess weapons unparalleled in the world. Democrats and the media that publish” false news “are concerned with the man who takes his dog for a walk.
