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You are here: Home / Archives for Rex Tillerson

Kushner Kept Talks from Tillerson

June 27, 2019 at 1:12 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“In newly disclosed testimony, former secretary of state Rex Tillerson said President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner operated independently with powerful leaders around the world without coordination with the State Department, leaving Tillerson out of the loop and in the dark on emerging U.S. policies and simmering geopolitical crises,” the Washington Post reports.

“Tillerson also described the challenge of briefing a president who does not read briefing papers and often got distracted by peripheral topics, noting he had to keep his message short and focus on a single topic.”

Filed Under: Foreign Affairs Tagged With: Rex Tillerson

Tillerson Secretly Meets With House Foreign Affairs

May 21, 2019 at 5:04 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was spotted entering a congressional office building on Tuesday morning for what a committee aide told the Daily Beast was a meeting with the leaders of the House Foreign Affairs committee and relevant staff about his time working in the Trump administration.”

“Tillerson’s appearance took place as virtually every other Trumpworld luminary has been stonewalling congressional oversight efforts.”

“Tillerson’s arrival at the Capitol was handled with extreme secrecy. No media advisories or press releases were sent out announcing his appearance. And he took a little noticed route into the building in order to avoid being seen by members of the media.”

Filed Under: House of Representatives Tagged With: Rex Tillerson

Trump Rips Rex Tillerson

December 7, 2018 at 3:35 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump tweeted that he thinks former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — who criticized the president in a comments reported earlier — was “dumb as a rock” and “lazy as hell” in his role at the State Department.

Filed Under: White House Tagged With: Rex Tillerson

Quote of the Day

December 7, 2018 at 8:39 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“So often, the president would say here’s what I want to do and here’s how I want to do it and I would have to say to him, Mr. President I understand what you want to do but you can’t do it that way. It violates the law.”

— Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, quoted by the Houston Chronicle.

Filed Under: White House Tagged With: Rex Tillerson

Quote of the Day

May 16, 2018 at 1:42 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“If our leaders seek to conceal the truth or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom.”

— Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, quoted by NBC News, giving the commencement address at the Virginia Military Institute.

Filed Under: White House Tagged With: Rex Tillerson

The Evisceration of American Diplomacy

April 19, 2018 at 8:22 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Ronan Farrow: “After Tillerson’s brief and chaotic ride as America’s top diplomat, Pompeo will face a Department with an uncertain future, in which the evisceration of American diplomacy well under way, if not complete. Should he be confirmed, he will face decisions with profound implications, potentially for generations of American foreign policy.”

Said former Secretary of State John Kerry: “In a couple years, if we get a Presidency of either party that values diplomacy, you can fix a budget, you can invest again in the State Department. But it takes years to undo what’s happening, because it takes years to build up expertise and capacity.”

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell offered a similarly blunt assessment saying the Trump Administration has been “ripping the guts out of the organization.”

A must-read from Farrow: War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence.

Filed Under: Foreign Affairs Tagged With: Rex Tillerson

Tillerson’s $12 Million Legacy

April 5, 2018 at 6:59 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “It was one of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s core goals: radically reshaping the State Department to make it leaner, cheaper and modernized to the standards of a former private-sector CEO. Now that Tillerson has been fired, the vaunted ‘Redesign’ initiative he launched faces an uncertain future, but at least one clear legacy: around $12 million dollars spent just for private consultants who in some cases charged the State Department more than $300 an hour.”

“As many as 90 consultants worked on the project, according to one document. Many of the consultants have spent extensive time at the State Department, meeting with top officials, collecting and analyzing data, creating PowerPoint presentations and leading group discussions with skeptical employees.”

Filed Under: Foreign Affairs Tagged With: Rex Tillerson

Tillerson Scrubbed from State Department Website

April 1, 2018 at 10:08 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Rex Tillerson has all but vanished from the State Department’s website as his unceremonious firing by tweet took effect over the weekend,” the AP reports.

“The ‘Secretary of State Tillerson’ link at the top of the department’s homepage disappeared overnight Saturday and was replaced with a generic ‘Secretary of State’ tab. When clicked, it leads to a page that informs visitors in a brief statement that Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan ‘became acting Secretary of State on April 1, 2018.’ It shows a photo of Sullivan signing his appointment papers as deputy in June 2017 but offers no explanation for the change in leadership.”

Filed Under: White House Tagged With: Rex Tillerson

Tillerson Takes a Departing Swing at Trump

March 22, 2018 at 2:04 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

In a farewell speech to department staff, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson wasn’t subtle expressing his view about the way he was summarily dismissed from his job by President Trump, Marketwatch reports.

Said Tillerson: “This can be a very mean-spirited town. But you don’t have to choose to participate in that. Each of us gets to choose the person we want to be, the way we want to be treated, and the way we want to treat others.”

Filed Under: White House Tagged With: Rex Tillerson

Bonus Quote of the Day

March 16, 2018 at 3:29 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“I will continue to pray for our country, our leaders, and your efforts to make this world a better place than we found it,”

— Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, quoted by the AP, in a message to State Department employees.

Filed Under: Foreign Affairs Tagged With: Rex Tillerson

Trump Regularly Mocked Tillerson

March 15, 2018 at 10:09 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “Trump initially was drawn to Tillerson because of his stature as chief executive of ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest companies, and his work as a global dealmaker. He told friends that the broad-shouldered, silver-haired Tillerson could be a diplomat out of central casting.”

“Yet Trump quickly soured on Tillerson and made no secret of his dislike. He mocked his mannerisms and Texas drawl, saying his secretary of state talked too slowly. In conversations with advisers and friends, the president would often list others he said would do a better job than Tillerson, whom he frequently labeled ‘weak.’”

“One source of weakness, the president felt, was Tillerson’s media profile. Trump told one adviser he was ‘amazed’ at how much negative press Tillerson received.”

Filed Under: White House Tagged With: Rex Tillerson

Tillerson Told to Watch for Trump’s Tweet

March 13, 2018 at 12:14 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The State Department said that Rex Tillerson only learned of his termination when he read President Trump’s tweet on Tuesday morning, the AP reports.

“Two senior department officials said Tillerson received a call from John Kelly, Trump’s chief of staff, on Friday, but was only told that there might be a presidential tweet that would concern him. Kelly didn’t tell Tillerson what the tweet might say or when it might actually publish.”

Washington Post: “In the end, no one was more surprised that Tillerson was fired than Tillerson himself.”

Filed Under: White House Tagged With: Rex Tillerson

Flashback Quote of the Day

March 13, 2018 at 11:32 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“From Ukraine to Syria – and now the UK – Russia continues to be an irresponsible force of instability in the world, acting with open disregard for the sovereignty of other states and the life of their citizens.”

— Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, quoted by ABC News, last night, hours before he was fired.

Filed Under: Foreign Affairs Tagged With: Rex Tillerson

Exchange of the Day

March 13, 2018 at 11:17 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump took questions from reporters after he fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson:

REPORTER: Did you fire him because he called you a moron?

TRUMP: What?

REPORTER: Did you fire him because he called you a moron?

TRUMP: Say it again.

REPORTER: (inaudible) Why now?

Filed Under: White House Tagged With: Rex Tillerson

Trump Ousts Tillerson as Secretary of State

March 13, 2018 at 8:47 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, orchestrating a major change to his national security team amid delicate negotiations with North Korea,” the Washington Post reports.

“Pompeo will replace him at the State Department, and Gina Hapsel — the deputy director at the CIA — will succeed him at the CIA, becoming the first woman to run the spy agency, if confirmed.”

New York Times: “Mr. Tillerson has been out of favor with Mr. Trump for months but had resisted being pushed out and vowed to remain on the job. But his distance from Mr. Trump’s inner circle was clear last week when the president accepted an invitation to meet with Mr. Kim, to the surprise of Mr. Tillerson, who was traveling in Africa at the time.”

Filed Under: White House Tagged With: Mike Pompeo, Rex Tillerson

Russia Already Interfering In Midterm Elections

February 7, 2018 at 3:07 pm EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told Fox News that Russia is already trying to interfere in the 2018 U.S. midterm elections.

But he said there are few ways to stop it.

Said Tillerson: “The point is, if it’s their intention to interfere, they are going to find ways to do that. We can take steps, but this is something that, once they decide they are going to do it, it’s very difficult to preempt it.”

Filed Under: 2018 Campaign Tagged With: Rex Tillerson, Russia

Tillerson Hangs On – For Now

January 24, 2018 at 8:00 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “Diplomatic insiders say Tillerson’s staying power may due be to his stubborn personality — along with the sense of pride that comes from being a former corporate CEO. That he hasn’t been fired could also reflect the political reality for Trump that losing his secretary of state so quickly would be an embarrassment — and that replacing Tillerson would be an unwanted headache.”

“Anything is possible in a Trump administration that has seen numerous high-level departures, of course. And critics warn that a shadow hangs over Tillerson that deepens confusion overseas about U.S. foreign policy. Foreign diplomats see Tillerson as a weak figure because his views are often out of sync with Trump’s. He’s also alienated many of the diplomats who work for him and are worried about his ambitious plan to downsize and restructure the State Department.”

Filed Under: Foreign Affairs Tagged With: Rex Tillerson

Tillerson Says He Has No Plans to Leave

January 6, 2018 at 10:10 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says he fully intends to remain in the Trump administration through 2018, casting concerns about his future at the State Department as overblown,” Politico reports.

“Speculation surrounding Tillerson’s job security and a potential departure — a so-called Rexit — has run rampant since NBC News reported in October that he had called Trump a ‘moron’ during a meeting with Pentagon officials.”

Meanwhile, Tillerson insisted to CNN that he has never questioned Trump’s mental fitness.

Filed Under: Foreign Affairs Tagged With: Rex Tillerson

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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