Tillerson copes with his boss’s tendency to undercut
Top diplomat often at odds with Trump on foreign policy
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson took several days off from a job in which President Trump repeatedly has undercut him.
Though he was back at work Wednesday, the former ExxonMobil CEO has plenty of reasons to feel frustrated, serving as chief diplomat for a president who regularly espouses foreign policy by tweet or speech that is at odds with Tillerson’s advice.
Asked about resignation rumors, Tillerson said, “I’m not going anywhere.” He said he would remain as the nation’s top diplomat “as long as the president lets me.” Asked about his relationship with Trump, Tillerson replied, “It’s good.”
But in the past six months, the president has undercut Tillerson on issues ranging from Qatar and Saudia Arabia to the Paris climate accord and dealings with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The State Department said Tuesday that Tillerson took a few days off after a heavy travel schedule. Asked whether Tillerson is happy with the freedom he has to make decisions, his spokeswoman Heather Nauert said decision-making involved many advisers “who may not agree on different situations.”
“Ultimately, the president is in charge of this country. He decides. He’s the boss. And I’ll just leave it at that,” Nauert said.
Frustration with the process would not be surprising for a corporate chieftain used to calling the shots himself, said Jon Alterman, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former State Department policy planner under President George W. Bush.
“Government is a lot different than running a business,” Alterman said. “It requires much more persuasion than many CEOs are used to.”
JERUSALEM CRISIS
Tillerson’s name did not come up during a 75-minute interview this week with a senior U.S. diplomat about the American role in a dispute between Palestinians and Israel over Israel’s security measures on the Temple Mount, a holy site that Muslims call Haram al-Sharif.
U.S. Consulate staff in Jerusalem and Trump’s Middle East envoy, Jason Greenblatt, have dealt directly with the White House, where Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, directs U.S.-Israeli policy, said the diplomat, who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.
FINE AGAINST EXXONMOBIL
Last week, the U.S. Treasury fined Tillerson’s former company, where he spent 41 years, for violating U.S. sanctions on Russia while he was at the company’s helm.
Tillerson’s role at ExxonMobil before heading the company was to develop oil and gas exploration and drilling operations around the world. In 2012, he received a Medal of Freedom from Russian President Vladimir Putin for developing oil fields in Russia.
The $2 million fine was for eight documents the company signed in May 2014 for energy deals with Russian oil giant Rosneft’s president, Igor Sechin, who was subject to sanctions, according to the Treasury.
QATAR-SAUDI RIFT
Tillerson’s attempt in June to act as a neutral broker on a rift between Qatar and Saudi Arabia was undercut by Trump’s support for Saudi Arabia.
The Saudis, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and transportation ties to Qatar, citing the Persian Gulf nation’s ties to Saudi rival Iran and its alleged support for hard-line Islamist groups. The United States maintains its largest military base in the Middle East at Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base south of the capital, Doha, which has more than 10,000 military personnel and Central Command facilities.
Trump called Qatar a “funder of terrorism” hours after Tillerson urged the sides to ease tensions and mend their differences.
Talks to end the standoff remained deadlocked Wednesday.
PARIS CLIMATE ACCORD
Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord June 1, weeks after Tillerson signed an international statement stressing the significance of the agreement in addressing climate change.
Tillerson lobbied Trump to remain in the 195-nation agree- ment signed by Obama, which set a goal of keeping the Earth from warming by more than 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels.
Trump said he was open to a new agreement that would not put U.S. businesses and workers at a disadvantage to developing economies such as China and India.
Other countries rejected renegotiation of the accord.
PUTIN PROBLEM
Trump has urged Tillerson and other members of his national security team to seek ways to improve U.S.-Russian relations. Tillerson has taken a harder stance on Russia’s behavior.
Under Tillerson, the State Department called out Russia for supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad despite chemical weapon attacks it said his forces used against Syrian civilians in towns controlled by rebels fighting his rule.
Tillerson has slammed Russia for its alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election. Trump questions conclusions by the U.S. intelligence community that Russia meddled.
Tillerson’s attempt to act as a neutral broker between Qatar and Saudi Arabia was undercut by Trump’s support for Saudi Arabia.