Rex Tillerson’s Candid Comments About President Trump Are What Most Of Us Already Thought
[guest post by Dana]
Former first secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who learned of his dismissal via a tweet from President Trump, had less than positive things to say about his former boss in an interview with CBS News’s Bob Schieffer this week. Tillerson openly discussed the President’s lack of self-discipline, and let’s call it laziness with regard to his obvious disinclination toward becoming a more educated and informed leader:
“What was challenging for me coming from the disciplined, highly process-oriented ExxonMobil corporation,” Tillerson said, was “to go to work for a man who is pretty undisciplined, doesn’t like to read, doesn’t read briefing reports, doesn’t like to get into the details of a lot of things, but rather just kind of says, ‘This is what I believe.’ ”
Tillerson said Trump believes he is acting on his instincts rather than relying on facts. But Tillerson seemed to suggest that it resulted in impulsiveness.
“He acts on his instincts; in some respects, that looks like impulsiveness,” Tillerson said. “But it’s not his intent to act on impulse. I think he really is trying to act on his instincts.”
Perhaps the most damning quote came when Tillerson talked about how Trump as president regularly attempted to do things that violated the law.
“So often, the president would say, ‘Here’s what I want to do, and here’s how I want to do it,’ ” Tillerson said, according to the Houston Chronicle, “and I would have to say to him, ‘Mr. President, I understand what you want to do, but you can’t do it that way. It violates the law [and treaties].’”
Is it really the “most damning quote” when it’s looked at more objectively and without an assumed intention to break the law: Anyone going into the presidency who has not been a student of history, has not attended law school, (nor has a firm grasp on civics) is going to be in the dark at some level when it comes to knowing what would or wouldn’t violate specific laws or treaties. So to say that President Trump “regularly attempted to do things that violated the law” may be true on one hand, on the other, it lacks a bit of context. But, even when one takes that into consideration, I think we all know that President Trump, who has at his disposal any number of experts on any number of issues pertinent to executing his duties, has never been the least bit interested in taking advantage of these opportunities, for any reason.
No one who has been paying attention and isn’t bound by partisan loyalty should be surprised by Tillerson’s observations.
Finally, about Trump’s Twitter habits, Tillerson made a general observation, yet one which clearly included his former boss:
“I will be honest with you: It troubles me that the American people seem to want to know so little about issues — that they are satisfied with 128 characters,” Tillerson said.
Also not surprising, and simultaneously validating Tillerson’s point to some degree, President Trump picked up his phone and accessed that same 128-character vehicle to insult his former secretary of State:
This is too easy: dumb as a rock? And who hired that “dumb as a rock” individual? Why, the person who famously bragged that he hired only “the very best people” of course! The back porch of the White House is now littered with those very best people. All hired by the same individual.
Exit question: Why do the “very best people” willingly accept a position in the Trump administration, when they know full-well that they too will be publicly humiliated by their boss when things go south? Perhaps this is a question Chief of Staff John Kelly will soon be pondering…
UPDATE BY PATTERICO: Kelly is out by the end of the year.
(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)
–Dana
