Coming soon to a Friday near you: A replacement for Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. While Donald Trump may be employing NBC's story on Tillerson calling his boss a "moron" as an example of “fake news,” NBC claims to have verified the story with more than a dozen sources. And the network’s on-air response during Today was not exactly backing away from their earlier statements.
“Sources on both sides say that this relationship is beyond repair, and the only reason the president hasn't fired Tillerson is that he ... can't afford any more political damage."
With nothing protecting Tillerson but a perception that it’s been too short a time since Trump’s last cabinet mini-massacre, The Washington Post says the relationship between former CEO of a Fortune 500 company and the CEO of Trump Water is in a death spiral.
Tillerson’s move on Wednesday to reassure Trump of his convictions may well be too little and too late for the long term, according to the accounts of 19 current and former senior administration officials and Capitol Hill aides, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer candid assessments.
The number of sources offered up by both NBC and the Post suggests two things: Trump’s White House continues to leak like a sieve, and everyone there is calling Trump a liar. It’s not as if Tillerson’s hastily re-purposed press conference wasn’t straining at the seams with Trump tension.
Mr. Tillerson praised Mr. Trump but did not deny a report that he once referred to the president as a “moron.” Mr. Trump welcomed Mr. Tillerson’s statement of support and declared “total confidence” in his secretary of state.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders repeated that Trump had confidence in Tillerson. In fact, confidence in his entire cabinet. Just like Trump had total confidence in James Comey:
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"The president has confidence in the director,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters.
And of course, confidence in Sean Spicer.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Monday that President Donald Trump “has confidence in everyone who serves him.”
Everyone … except Reince Priebus, who was singled out for a particular vote of no confidence.
In Tillerson’s case, the relationship-beyond-repair is simply waiting out the timer on how soon Trump thinks he can get away with dispatching the secretary of state without people saying “Wait. Wasn’t that ‘Fake News?’”
Mr. Tillerson has avoided expressing his pique to the president. But aides and Trump associates who have been in the room with them said Mr. Tillerson’s body language, eye rolling and terse expressions left little doubt that he disapproves of Mr. Trump’s approach.
Mr. Trump, they said, has noticed how Mr. Tillerson slouches in his presence, particularly when he disagrees with a decision. When overruled, Mr. Tillerson often says, “It’s your deal,” to the president’s irritation, according to two former administration officials.
Trump will need to re-cast the secretary of state role with someone who’s better at echoing everything Trump says … and reversing himself when Trump inevitably takes multiple positions only minutes apart,
The president initially viewed Mr. Tillerson as a granite-jawed cabinet secretary who fit Mr. Trump’s requirement that top advisers look as if they came out of “central casting,” as he has put it. Mr. Trump regularly boasted about hiring the head of the world’s largest corporation — and in the presence of a profoundly uncomfortable Mr. Tillerson, whom the president for months referred to as “Mr. Exxon.”
What’s the CEO of Phillip Morris doing? Surely Trump would appreciate being able to say that he’d replaced Mr. Exxon with the Marlboro Man.