Pompeo is likely to be worse
If Rex Tillerson had ended his professional career as CEO of ExxonMobil, his reputation would have been that of a successful leader of one of the world’s largest companies and a devoted supporter of the Boy Scouts. Instead he will be remembered as one of the country’s weakest and least effective secretaries of state.
With no experience in government, he provided little leadership and eviscerated the department he was chosen to lead, carrying out the budget-cutting orders of a hotheaded president. And yet we have cause to regret his departure, because his replacement is likely to be worse.
Tillerson was at least one of the administration’s few realist voices, along with defence secretary Jim Mattis. He acknowledged threats from Russia, advocated diplomacy with North Korea, supported the Paris climate pact and encouraged Donald Trump to preserve the Iran nuclear deal. But that put him at odds with the president.
The relationship was further eroded when it was reported he called the president a “moron” at a gathering of security and cabinet officials and, after Trump spoke respectfully of white nationalists who demonstrated in Charlottesville, Tillerson said Trump “speaks for himself”.
The president announced he would replace Tillerson with Mike Pompeo, the CIA director and former Tea Party congressman, who has endeared himself to Trump with his engaging approach during intelligence briefings. Pompeo has also endeared himself to the climate changedenying Koch brothers, who, along with affiliated groups donated $357,300 to his campaigns and political action committee, according to the McClatchy newspapers.
Pompeo is unlikely to be sidelined in policy debates, as Tillerson was, even though he too, unlike Trump, supported his agency’s conclusion that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 elections. But his hawkish approach could do serious damage on national security issues, including Iran and North Korea, on which he has expressed views at odds with his predecessor’s. New York, March 14