Hiding in plain sight
The secretary of state is this country’s top diplomat, circling the globe, meeting with foreign leaders and explaining Washington’s policies. But Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobile president, doesn’t see his job that way.
He’s hiding in plain sight, as his bumbling trip to Asia showed, along with a tone-deaf decision to skip a meeting with worried NATO allies in favor of sessions with Chinese and Russian leaders. His slack performance is ceding policy pronouncements to the White House, which has little regard for State Department expertise.
The Trump team may be getting exactly what it wants: a courtly figure with little experience who will leave strategy and fiery pronouncements to the president.
Example A was the Asia trip, on which the back-ofthe-plane press corps was kept to a single representative from an obscure news agency. In China, he mouthed Beijing’s favored language in describing bilateral ties as “built on nonconfrontation, no conflict, mutual respect and always searching for winwin solutions.’’ It was a clumsy performance.
While meeting with leaders of China and Russia is important, so is shoring up links with NATO, whose European members are wondering about Trump’s commitment to the protective alliance. Snubbing the NATO session sows more doubt.
His stature is shrinking in other ways. His department is looking at a proposed 30 percent budget cut. If that wholesale pruning happens, Tillerson’s role would shrink even further. No wonder he grumbled this week, “I didn’t want this job. I didn’t seek this job. My wife told me I’m supposed to do it.’’
Washington can’t accept a reluctant, halfhearted diplomat in chief.