Other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. Next, mike pompeo reflects on his time serving as cia director and secretary of state under the Trump Administration. Following his remarks, mr. Pompeo took questions from the audience including how to debate conservative points of view on college campuses. This is from a conference hosted by the Young America foundation. Good evening. Its good to see all your great faces out there. Did you have a good day . Yeah. I will give a brief introduction before mime voice gives out. The word to think about with this introduction is leadership. On the screen behind me you see a plaque. About four years ago not too long after we dedicated the us embassy for the first time in jerusalem the capital of the state of israel. [applause] now, why thats important is because politicians for years if not decades said theyre going to move the embassy from the United States from tel aviv to jerusalem, thats the capital where the Prime Minister is at. Where the seat of the government is, they said theyre going to move it and in the end a bunch a bunch of democrats said you cant do that. First and foremost President Trump is the first president to make that happen but the reason why i showed you that plaque is up there you see one other important name. It was the 70th secretary of state mike pompeo thats because there was a secretary of state before. I will go into detail what stood in the way of the president being able to deliver on that promise. Its a good reminder that Leadership Matters not just elected office but in an appointed office along the way and for all of you, not just that Leadership Matters on your campuses, even in your communities and households. Our special guest is always in the way, first in his class. Hes a leader on the battlefield in the cold war in the midst of some of the most intense areas. He was a leader when he stepped up and led not one but two Manufacturing Companies caring for families at the good and wholesome work involved with manufacturing and like he said as a member of the United States army he stood up and answered thatcall again. As a member of the us house of representatives from the great state of kansas and when President Trump asked him to serve again he was the director of the Central Bureau of investigation at the cia, i was going to say the bureau but the cia stepped up as well and in fact as zack mentioned when this nation, he stepped up to be the 70th secretary of the United States but along the way hes been a great husband and a great father and i told you before we spoke, its probably one of his most important leadership roles. He i was going to say the bureau the ci step up cia stepped up and lead that as well. In fact, as zack mentioned when this nation, he stepped up to be the 70th secretary of the United States, but along the way hes been a great husband and a great father and i told you before we spoke at events for the Young Americans foundation, it is probably one of his most important leadership roles, it was was he learned to be a leader at every step of the way. Give a warm welcome to the 70th secretary of state mike pompeo. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2023] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] mike thank you all. Thanks, everyone. [applause] [cheers and applause] go army mike go army, all right. You know, as i look out this room, i think of all that applause and i think most of you are going, i am uploading so much because one republican said he wasnt going to run for president comes up god bless you. [laughter] scott, thanks for the kind introduction. Thanks for getting the pronouns right. I appreciate that. [laughter] and you mentioned fifth grade sunday school, it reminded me i have had this incredible privilege. I have had the chance to serve as team leader, a member of my Homeowners Association board, ive been lots of talk places in my life. [laughter] but if you can do sunday school, chairman kim has nothing on you. [laughter] like, you can, you can confront anyone if you can sit in sunday school for an hour. [laughter] um. Tonight, i will share some comments and ill spend a lot of time listening to you and taking questions talking about the things that are on your mind, but there are a few things i think are so important, especially for the young people who are in the audience tonight. Who im sure as you and other leaders come and speak to you, you have heard them, but i want to give you a practitioners view thats because my life has been filled with an incredible opportunity. I had the chance to go to law school at west point, where i got a fantastic education but frankly the things i learned the most work from the people who i spent time with, the young people, my peers, my bosses who ive been able to learn from and experience things from so when we talk about the world whether its some of the silliness thats taking place in our schools today, or the challenges abroad, you should know, and Governor Walker and i were talking about this, in the end, the question comes to be, can you execute . Can you deliver . Practitioners have that additional burden. Some of the folks here tonight run businesses. Its great to talk about marginal costs and all of that but what really matters is can you build teams . Can you convince customers that your product is worthy . And in the same way as secretary of state, can you convince your adversaries the things you say, you really mean . We didnt have the advantage of having the media with the wind at our backs. How is that for diplomatic speak . It reminds me, i have been a secretary of state for a couple of months and consecutive days, the new times ran a headline, worst secretary of state ever. Ok. Next day was David Ignatius at the washington post, same headline, so clearly coordinated. Worst secretary of state ever. My son calls me and he knows im pretty tough, he thought, dad might be suffering. I will call. And he said, dad, i did some research and there is this fellow named Elijah Washburn and he was secretary of state for 11 days. Surely, youre better than him. [laughter] [applause] and so, kids will keep you humble and keep you going so we have this thing called where we are number two. He and i have joined. We worked on things that matter. Our focus every day was trying to keep each and every one of you safe. And i hope as we move through this Campaign Season that will be what you demand as well. I hope what we will all demand as we move through this political process is that we ask candidates not just residential candidates, the next candidate for school board, candidate for district attorney, candidates across the country. I hope we will ask this hard question about the things they intend to do. What is it you will do that will matter in my life . What is it you will do to put my city in a better place, county, or keep crime off the streets in our urban environments . Focus less on twitter or x or whatever its called. [laughter] i hope we will focus on the things that actually deliver, and that is where i thought we would spend a few minutes, then take questions. What are those things . These are the things that are timeless. You all here do amazing work because you focus on things that matter, things that are timeless. We know the institutions that matter. Dont let them gaslight you. I joked about pronouns. We know that there are two genders. I get it. My son lives in a contested space. Dont let them talk about the fact that its not clear how many genders there are. Tonight, you will have riley gains here. We should pretty much just keep men in mens sports. This is not hard. Dont let them feel you. Dont let them obliterate you, dont let them tell you dont remember. You get it. It was great to be the Supreme Court they finally understood what equality meant as well. [applause] its an imperative. And i know so many alumni who were part of that. Not just the Supreme Court but in states all across america who were working to create the quality, working to create programs in schools we want kids to go in. A place where you want your granddaughter, a school that is worthy of him or her. Youre not going to be drawn into some crappy school someplace and let Randy Weingarten tell you what they should be learning. We have parents that have the capability of doing that. We are going to recognize that deeply. You may be surprised i started the conversation talking about things that matter at home but you are the secretary of state, there are two rules. The first rule is dont promise you anything your boss has told you you cannot promise. I was introduced as the 70th secretary of state, donald trump was the 45th president , so i knew that there was more turnover in my gig than his. [laughter] so i was mindful i was not president of the United States. I was his diplomat. I was his senior spy cia director. We were aiming to achieve the outcomes people of america had commanded him to do. The second thing you have to make sure it is you just never lose the theme. You never lose the mission set that drove you to do the things you said you would do. And for us we knew if you dont get it right at home, the chance you can deliver security for america is near zero. I was a young soldier before most of you were born. Uh, along to ago, but i was a soldier, and i knew that we mattered. I knew that it mattered at the state department. We needed to have the strongest most capable lethal fighting force in the world so we should focus a little less on dei. We should focus on a little less on making sure that all our military bases are Carbon Neutral by 2040, which as a tanker makes me laugh. I imagine im looking for my fuel. [laughter] it is frightening. But in the end its the broad map of American People delivering American Power to its economy and its people and the central understanding of our founders. If we get these things wrong and the American Economy doesnt grow 2 , 3 , not just. 6 , and the American People walk away from our founding traditions for the 73rd or secretary of state 74th wont have a prayer. Just look at this in todays world. Without a strong capable American Economy, the ukrainian people would be suffering even more than they are today. It doesnt matter we have had the wherewithal to deliver on the tools and weapons needed to defend their own sovereignty and at enormous costs to the imprinting people. It has cost us money, taxpayer money, there is no doubt about that, but tens of thousands of ukrainians have lost their lives and each one of their families will suffer for that forever but they did it because they had central idea but said invading another sovereign nation and destroying its infrastructure and killing civilians is indecent, and we must [applause] we must make sure we protected. For america it matters for a couple of reasons and one of them is we always try to do the right thing. That is good. That is porton. But as Jean Kirkpatrick said sometimes you have to work with bad guys too. But ukraine matters whether its in kyiv, warsaw, or the baltic nations. If you go back and look at Vladimir Putin statements over the last 24 years, it is clear his intentions were limited to this one piece of land on ukraine. They were deeper and bigger. For anyone who doesnt think for a moment that xi jinping and china is watching whether the world still has what the world has always had. If you think he isnt watching to see either we are good on our word for things that matter to the American People, i think we are just sadly mistaken. Theres too many in the Republican Party have had a different view of that. I think that is in enormous mistake. I wish it were not the case that america had to lead. I wish it was the case we could sit back and drink pinnock a lot and just relax. But sadly, the very freedom that is part of the name of this organization depends on america, not just American Leadership to keep others free but to keep ourselves free as well. It does not mean and we end the Trump Administration were good at this it does not mean sending the 82nd airborne every time there is a problem in the world. It simply means understanding that theres a place for American Leadership in properly executing. You can determine our adversaries without ever having to send our young boys and girls to risk their lives. We did it. I must say, we will never get credit for the fact that Vladimir Putin did not invade europe on our watch. I get asked all the time. [applause] i get asked all the time. I get asked all the time like would this have happened if he were still there . I said did you see the pictures of me at the end . I was done. I was at the end of my time. The truth is i cant prove whether it wouldve happened. If President Trump were here, he would say no, is not just going to happen. [laughter] i can even do a better impression. I have an impression of donald trump doing chairman kim that his killer. [cheering] not tonight. [laughter] here is something i can say, he did not invade europe on our watch. That is factually true. He didnt take an inch for four years and he went right back at it because he did not confidence that the United States of america would do the right thing at the right moment for the right reason. In the same way i think he feared we would have done. That is the execution of deterrence in the finest tradition of president reagan. We flipped the script on china. For 50 years we had been engaging with them, brooke no ill will towards the Chinese People. I actually pray for him. I pray for the Chinese People that america will do the right thing and continue to confront xi jinping in his communist party. There was a big fight inside the state department to say no, engagement has no longer run its course and is no longer working for us, and we began to challenge what had been a war on america for at least 25 years, perhaps as many as 40. Millions of american jobs destroyed, that fires foisted on the world that killed millions of people. We could see that xi jinping was a different cat, a different kind of leader there, and his intentions were not just to hold one million of his own people in concentration camps. That is bad enough. That is troubling enough and Many American businesses should rethink what they are doing there globally. There were hegemonic and an attempt to describe america as a country in decline was just observational, it was his effort. He wants america to be in decline. You should know he is telling his stories on tiktok as we speak, telling stories about rising power and america as a failed has been a country. I dont believe that for a second, but i do not also believe it is an a priori conclusion that it will forever be so. It will continue to take effort and sacrifice and work for us to continue to confront what is the first power since at least the soviet union that ever had the chance to change the way we live in america, so i will not spend a lot of time talking about. But know this much, we must get this right. It is not impossible. There are many problems confronting china today. And we should stoke them. [applause] and we should do all that we can , because when we get this right, when we get this right, we wont have to go fight them. When we get this right, they will not invade taiwan. When we get this right, they wont bribe african leaders. When we get this right they wont run a surveillance state in their own country unrivaled in history. I think about so many chineseamericans today who are being touched on the streets, having Chinese People walk up and ask them how is your cousin doing . Asking them, how is your uncle . Chinese students studying at our finest universities having the Chinese Government what are you studying we know where your uncle is. These are the kinds of things that threaten civilizations, and we benefited enormously from the civilization that exist today and the rules that exist on the global stage. We have to continue to protect them and we have to continue to be the greatest nation in the history of that civilization. [applause] i, i am convinced that we will be. Im convinced you all are going to let the left gaslight use. I am convinced that we would do all the things that are needed. We have this very special place when i was a cadet, first day, show up, they give you a rifle, a uniform, and the federalist papers. Loved my uniform. The rifle was cool. The federalist papers, i still have. Read them. Xi jinping does not want you to understand that. One more thing. This helpline appeared as i was leaving the administration in a New York Times reporter grandpas headline, and i had been working on religious freedom issues and i was unembarrassed to speak about my faith in its centrality and how i thought about americas place in the world was that the headline for the New York Times was mike pompeo, god diplomat. It does not get better than that. [laughter] then i read the article and realized there was this fundamental misunderstanding about who we are as a judeochristian nation and how we deliver good outcomes not only fo