No Rexit yet; Tillerson has Trump’s OK
White House downplays rift over ‘moron’ remark
The White House insisted President Trump still has confidence in Secretary of State Rex Tillerson amid a report he called the commander-in-chief a “moron” and speculation he would abruptly step down as their relationship has reportedly turned toxic.
“He does,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders yesterday when asked if Trump still has confidence in Tillerson.
“Nothing has changed despite what you may read in the media or watch on TV,” Sanders said. “I would certainly trust the president and my comments far above those of other reporters.”
The political website Axios reported yesterday that Trump advisers are considering replacing Tillerson with CIA director Mike Pompeo, a former Kansas Republican congressman, who is closer in line with Trump’s worldview than Tillerson is.
But such a move would dramatically roil the Trump administration. Retiring Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee on Wednesday cautioned against disrupting the triumvirate of Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.
Corker called them “those people that help separate our country from chaos,” adding, “I support them very much.”
Corker sounded alarms in August after Trump’s controversial impromptu comments reacting to the violence in Charlottesville, Va., telling reporters Trump hadn’t yet been able to “demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence ... to be successful” in the White House.
Sanders downplayed Corker’s comments yesterday.
“Look, I think that the president is the one that’s keeping the world from chaos,” Sanders said.
“He has an incredible team around him that’s helping him lead that effort, and he’s had tremendous accomplishments on the international stage by working with allies and confronting enemies,” she said. “We’re going to continue doing that, and we’re going to continue doing that as a team with the president leading that effort.”
She added that Trump “absolutely” has confidence in Kelly as well, and didn’t anticipate any resignations before the start of the long Columbus Day weekend, the traditional time when administrations, local and national, look to dump bad news.
Trump was reportedly fuming after returning from his trip to Las Vegas comforting survivors of the Las Vegas massacre, only to find Tillerson dominating the news cycle after NBC News reported he had threatened to quit and that he had referred to the president as a “moron.”
Tillerson immediately sought to tamp down the controversy by calling an emergency press conference and denying he ever considered resigning. The former CEO of Exxon Mobil from 2006 to 2016 is reportedly hoping to stay at State for at least one year.
Trump has declared the dustup “fake news” and on Twitter suggested the Senate Intelligence Committee look into the “Fake News Networks in OUR country.”
A Tillerson departure — dubbed by some in the media as a “Rexit” — would create yet another Cabinet vacancy. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price resigned last week amid controversy over using pricey private planes on the taxpayer dime for official business.