Rex Tillerson, Donald Trump’s secretary of state, wants to destroy the State Department. That’s the obvious conclusion to draw from Nahal Toosi’s account, in Politico, of Tillerson’s refusal to take $80 million in funding that is already available to the State Department to combat propaganda from ISIS and Russia. Let’s be clear: Tillerson is also in over his head and his competence is in question. But he’s refusing to take the $80 million for two basic reasons. First, he plans to slash the State Department’s budget and “reorganize” the agency, and therefore refuses to take extra money (can’t get used to luxury!) or make any big decisions (why put in the work of functioning now if you’re going to function differently in the future?). And second, because …
One Tillerson aide, R.C. Hammond, suggested the money is unwelcome because any extra funding for programs to counter Russian media influence would anger Moscow, according to a former senior State Department official. [...]
Hammond further expressed hesitation about needling the Russians at a time when Tillerson was trying to find common ground with the Kremlin on sensitive matters such as the war in Syria. The Kremlin-backed news outlet Sputnik has compared the Global Engagement Center to George Orwell’s Ministry of Truth.
"Hammond said the secretary is in the process of working through disagreements with Russia, and this is not consistent with what we're trying to do," the former senior State official said.
By this logic, the U.S. better not try to stop Russia from straight-up hacking our 2018 elections—it might make them mad.