President Donald Trump’s administration sent the same unyielding diplomatic message on multiple fronts Wednesday, making it clear that the president and his team are using the same blunt talk with world leaders that he used last year to rally crowds on the campaign trail.
Sharp words for Iranian and Mexican leaders stood as early manifestations of Trump’s promise of a tougher American approach to nations who don’t align with U.S. goals and values.
The news was poignantly timed, as Trump also swore in former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson on Wednesday as secretary of state — the nation’s highest-ranking diplomat — to voice his administration’s message to leaders around the world.
“It is time to bring a clear-eyed focus to foreign affairs,” Trump said as he introduced Tillerson, hours after the Senate approved his nomination on a largely partisan 56-43 vote.
Earlier Wednesday, the White House issued a firm warning that the U.S. will act against Iran unless it stops testing ballistic missiles and supporting rebels in Yemen but declined to say what retaliatory actions the U.S. would pursue.
“We are officially putting Iran on notice,” said national security adviser Michael Flynn, forcefully denouncing Iran’s behavior in his first public remarks since Trump took office.
He accused Iran of threatening U.S. allies and spreading instability throughout the Middle East while faulting the Obama administration for doing too little to stop the Islamic Republic.
The White House also faulted Iran for backing Houthi rebels in Yemen who on Tuesday claimed a successful missile strike against a warship belonging to a Saudi-led coalition fighting to reinstall Yemen’s internationally recognized government. The media arm of the Shiite rebels said the vessel was believed to belong to the Saudi Arabian navy.
‘Bad hombres’
In another example of the change of tone in U.S. diplomacy, a transcript obtained by The Associated Press revealed that Trump threatened in a phone call with his Mexican counterpart to send U.S. troops to stop “bad hombres down there” unless the Mexican military does more to control them.
The excerpt of the call did not detail who exactly Trump considered “bad hombres,” nor did it make clear the tone and context of the remark, made in a Friday morning phone call between the leaders. It also did not contain Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s response.
Trump didn’t limit his pointed words to foreign leaders. Eager for swift approval of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, the president urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to change Senate rules, if necessary, to overcome a Democratic blockade.
“If we end up with that gridlock I would say, ‘If you can, Mitch, go nuclear,’ ” Trump said. “Because that would be an absolute shame if a man of this quality was caught up in the web. So I would say, it’s up to Mitch, but I would say, ‘Go for it.’ ”’
‘A great man’
Trump also made an unannounced trip Wednesday to honor the returning remains of a U.S. Navy SEAL killed in a weekend raid in Yemen.
Chief Special Warfare Operator William “Ryan” Owens, a 36-year-old from Peoria, Illinois, was the first known U.S. combat casualty since Trump took office less than two weeks ago. More than half a dozen militant suspects were also killed in the raid on an al-Qaida compound and three other U.S. service members were wounded.
“I just returned from an amazing visit with a great, great family at Dover,” Trump said later, during Tillerson’s swearing-in. “It is something very sad, very beautiful. Ryan, a great man.”
Cabinet struggles
While Tillerson sailed into office, other Trump cabinet choices ran into rougher waters Wednesday:
• Top House Democrats urged an investigation into whether national security adviser Flynn violated the Constitution by accepting pay to speak at an event honoring a Russian television network in 2015.
• Republicans jammed two of Trump’s picks through the Senate Finance Committee with no Democrats in the room after suspending a rule that would have otherwise barred them from taking the vote.
Busting through a Democratic boycott of the Finance panel, all 14 Republicans took advantage of Democrats’ absence to temporarily disable a committee rule requiring at least one Democrat to be present. They then used two 14-0 roll calls to approve financier Steve Mnuchin for Treasury secretary and Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., to be health secretary.
• Two Republicans, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, said they would vote against the nomination of Betsy DeVos as education secretary. This puts her on shaky ground, as most Democrats have already expressed opposition.
• A Senate panel signed off on Trump’s choice for attorney general only after senators exchanged heated words, and another committee postponed a vote on the would-be chief of the Environmental Protection Agency after Democrats refused to show up.
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