Maybe Trump never wanted Tillerson as Secretary of State; perhaps Putin got that cabinet pick. Or maybe Trump hates the office because it was once held by the woman who kicked his ass in the popular vote total by 3M.
Or maybe Trump grew to resent Tillerson after installing him in the role after it dawned on him, Trump, that unlike Trump, Tillerson was a real CEO of a company that, whatever its faults, is a real global organization with assets instead of a shady licensing scheme. Or maybe it’s hair envy.
Trump is petty enough to make all these scenarios plausible. But whatever the reason, he’s hollowing out the State Department and undermining Tillerson. Via Vox:
Mexico’s foreign minister, Luis Videgaray, was in Washington. The Los Angeles Times’s Tracy Wilkinson asked State spokesperson Mark Toner what the plans were for his visit. Toner, a highly regarded career foreign service officer, apparently had no idea that a key foreign dignitary was even in the city…
Tillerson doesn’t seem to be much of a player on key foreign policy decisions, even though the job of the secretary of state is to help make them. The former Exxon Mobil CEO has also been slapped down by the White House on personnel choices and given virtually no opportunities to make public appearances with President Trump.
Now this is the latest black eye for the embattled department, already reeling from a proposed 37 percent budget cut.
Maybe Trump thinks billion-dollar battleships make diplomacy superfluous. At any rate, rest easy, fellow citizens — Mr. Ivanka is handling foreign policy, so it’s all good.