Tillerson denies dislike of Trump
UNITED STATES: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered up a notable response yesterday to a leading GOP senator’s assertion that President Donald Trump was trying to ‘‘publicly castrate’’ the secretary by undercutting his diplomacy.
‘‘I checked – I’m fully intact,’’ Tillerson deadpanned.
The notion of Trump running roughshod over the nation’s top diplomat is apparently a sensitive one inside the White House.
Tillerson and America’s United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley made the television newstalk show rounds yesterday to push back against reports of a deteriorating relationship between Trtump and Tillerson.
Haley was asked about reports she might be tapped to replace the former Exxon Mobil chief executive as secretary of state.
‘‘That’s ridiculous,’’ she said. Haley contended, as she has previously, that Trump and Tillerson ‘‘work very well together’’.
Tillerson, however, passed up repeated chances to directly deny that he had called Trump a ‘‘moron’’ – a remark reportedly made months ago, but that emerged earlier this month in news reports.
‘‘I’m not going to deal with that kind of petty stuff,’’ Tillerson said. ‘‘I don’t work that way.’’
He had also sidestepped a flat denial after the report first appeared, although his spokeswoman said he didn’t use such language.
Two weeks ago, Trump went on Twitter to admonish Tillerson, then in the midst of delicate diplomatic outreach toward North Korea, not to ‘‘waste his time’’ pursuing any indirect channel to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Many foreign policy observers described that as a remarkable breach of the united front that presidents and the State Department traditionally seek to present.
Some Trump supporters painted Trump’s comment as a kind of ‘‘good cop-bad cop’’ play, but Senator Bob Corker – the Tennessee Republican who a week ago referred to the White House as an ‘‘adult daycare’’ centre and then used the castration metaphor in subsequent interviews – said no such strategic imperative was at work.
Tillerson insisted that he and Trump routinely have ‘‘a very open exchange of views’’ – again without specifically denying the ‘‘moron’’ characterisation, which was reportedly made to others, not to the president’s face.
‘‘I call the president ‘Mr President,’ ‘‘ Tillerson said.
Corker and Tillerson are close, and the senator, who chairs the foreign relations committee, is a respected voice in the chamber on foreign policy matters.
Corker’s caustic observation about daycare followed a Twitter attack by Trump in which the president accused the Tennessee Republican, who is retiring, of not having the ‘‘guts’’ to seek reelection.
After Corker’s online retort, the president replied by belittling Corker’s height.