Every once in a while we're reminded of that grand tradition of exchanging gifts with grandees from other countries during diplomatic visits.
Most of these gifts are emblematic of the host countries: Turkey gave Pompeo, as Secretary of State, two persian carpets worth nearly $20,000, while Trump got an antique Ottoman rifle from Bulgaria and a gold, onyx, emerald and diamond statue of an Arabian oryx (an antelope, remember?) from Qatar, with a value of $6,300, and so on.
All of these tschotskes would look great on the mantle or near it, except that the recipients have to buy them from the United States government -- specifically, the National Archives -- with their own personal funds.
Be that as it may, there is one gift that the United States has failed to collect and now can't find: A $5,800 bottle of whiskey that Mike Pompeo received from the government of Japan in 2019. The National Archives knows it was there. It was reported as being there.
What happened to it? Has anyone asked Mike Pompeo what he served at his last little get-together with his "pompe-ous" pals? Or was it those aides and interns -- what were they up to the night they were giggling and laughing a week before the election? Has anyone found a similar bottle, but without the whiskey? What would the National Archives do then? Get DNA profiles?
In all likelihood, the National Archives will have to mark this gift as Lost at Sea and hope that it won't be back in the media for the rest of the century.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mike-pompeo-japan-whiskey-gift_n_610adf23e4b0b94f6077fef7
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