Secretary of State Pompeo to address Republican National Convention from Jerusalem

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will on Tuesday night address the Republican National Convention from Jerusalem, the 2020 Trump reelection campaign confirmed earlier in the day.

Pompeo will speak while on an official overseas trip. The State Department said earlier this week that Pompeo would participate in the convention program but in a "personal" capacity.

His speech is raising questions about a federal employee using government time for seeming political purposes. 

President Trump in his first term has made efforts to strengthen relations with Israel, the United States' oldest and most reliable Middle East ally. 

In 2017, Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and stated that the U.S. Embassy would be moved there from Tel Aviv. The embassy was officially opened in Jerusalem in May 2018.

Trump has also in his roughly four years in office attempted to point out the U.S.-Israel relations were strained under the preceding Obama administration, which include then-Vice President Joe Biden, who's now Trump's 2020 White House challenger.