No brainpower battle, no rift, Trump says
Tillerson IQ challenge shrugged off as a joke
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump challenged Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to “compare IQ tests.” The White House later insisted the president was only joking.
Trump issued the challenge in an interview with Forbes magazine, when asked about reports that Tillerson called him a “moron” after a classified briefing this summer. The president responded that if the claim was true, the two should duke it out in a battle of brainpower.
“And I can tell you who is going to win,” Trump said.
The White House and the State Department suggested Tuesday that the president was simply trying to make light of what they describe as inaccurate reports of tension.
Trump on Tuesday declared that he had confidence in Tillerson hours after the publication of the interview — and before a private luncheon with Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
The back-and-forth has been eyebrow raising for foreign diplomats tasked with decoding U.S. foreign policy. While the State Department has assured diplomats there is no rift between Trump and Tillerson, the president’s barbed comments have risked undermining confidence in the direction of Washington’s foreign policy and given an impression of disunity in the Cabinet, according to three foreign diplomats based in Washington.
One cited the confusion created by Trump’s tweet on Tillerson’s North Korea diplomacy, saying that if North Korea’s interlocutors feel Tillerson lacks authority, they may be more hesitant to convey possible U.S. diplomatic overtures to their leadership in Pyongyang.
The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Trump denied Tuesday that he was undermining Tillerson. Sitting alongside former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at a White House meeting, Trump told reporters, “No, I didn’t undercut anybody. I don’t believe in undercutting people.” And White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tried to laugh off Trump’s IQ comment.
“The president certainly never implied that the secretary of state was not incredibly intelligent. He made a joke, no more than that,” she said.
But Tillerson has at times felt undercut by Trump’s contradictory messages, including his comments on a crisis with Qatar this summer, according to a person who has spoken with the secretary of state.