New York Daily News

Grovels for Prez but won’t deny calling him ‘moron’

- BY TERENCE CULLEN and JASON SILVERSTEI­N

SECRETARY of State Tillerson adamantly denied a report Wednesday that he had considered quitting his cabinet post after constant clashes with President Trump.

What he didn’t deny: Reportedly calling Trump a “moron,” or possibly a “f---ing moron,” at a high-level Pentagon meeting.

“I’m not going to deal with petty stuff like that,” Tillerson (photo inset) said about the alleged remark during a hastily arranged press conference in the White House’s Treaty Room.

“This is what I don’t understand about Washington. Again, I’m not from this place. But the places I come from, we don’t deal with that kind of petty nonsense. And it is intended to do nothing but divide people.”

He never personally denied that he had disparaged the President. A denial only came hours later and secondhand, through a State Department spokeswoma­n.

Tillerson spoke to the press after an NBC News report said he had come close to quitting over the summer after getting fed up with Trump’s antics.

The report, which was sourced to a dozen former and current senior administra­tion officials, said Tillerson lost patience with Trump’s blunders in office and behind the scenes.

Tillerson’s last straw was apparently Trump’s brash and political speech in July at the national Jamboree for the Boy Scouts of America, an organizati­on Tillerson has been involved with for most of his life. Tillerson’s father was an executive at the Scouts.

Tillerson also reportedly called Trump a “moron” during a July Pentagon meeting, a day after Trump had privately considered firing the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanista­n.

A NBC Stephanie reporter on story, the Ruhle, later clarified that a source said Tillerson had actually called Trump a “f---ing moron.”

The NBC report said Vice President Pence had to talk Tillerson off the ledge and convinced him to keep his beefs with Trump private. Other White House officials reportedly pleaded with Tillerson, a former ExxonMobil CEO with no prior public service experience, to stay at least through the end of the year. Tillerson was clear in denying the reports that he was heading for the exit. “The vice president has never had to persuade me to remain as secretary of state, because I have never considered leaving this post,” he said. Trump also blasted the NBC report on Twitter .

“NBC news is #FakeNews and more dishonest than even CNN. They are a disgrace to good reporting. No wonder their news ratings are way down!” Trump tweeted. That tweet appeared verbatim, and simultaneo­usly, on the account for White House social media director Dan Scavino, raising questions about whether Trump had even written it.

In another tweet after Tillerson’s conference, Trump added, “The @NBCNews story has just been totally refuted by Sec. Tillerson and @VP Pence. It is #FakeNews. They should issue an apology to AMERICA!”

He later told reporters in Las Vegas that Tillerson has his “full confidence.”

The NBC report sparked renewed interest in a 2014 Trump tweet, when he shared a cartoon he said was “interestin­g.” It showed the Founding Fathers huddling together, with one saying, “I keep thinking we should include something in the Constituti­on in case the people elect a f--ing moron.”

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