President Trump tweeted this morning that he was firing his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. That’s the first that Tillerson learned of it. Tillerson just now gave an outgoing speech to his staff at State that was televised. He said that at noon today (EST), he received a phone call from President Trump who was onboard Air Force One. He said the president said he was terminating Tillerson at the State Department.
As I repeatedly have stated on this blog, I think President Donald Trump is a jerk. This episode is further proof. Trump should have told Tillerson to his face that he was ending his employment. Instead, he tweets it to the world first, and hours later phones Tillerson to tell him.
Donald Trump would never have lasted long as a CEO of a large U.S. corporation. In contrast, he fired a guy who had been the CEO for 12 years of what was the largest U.S. corporation and sixth largest in the world–Exxon Mobil. Trump couldn’t hold a candle to Tillerson, a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where both of my daughters graduated. Rex Tillerson is a man of character, and Donald Trump is not.
Tillerson was criticizes by many for how he managed the State Department in the short time he was there, and perhaps justly so. But I think he was right in many of his disagreements with President Trump. One was that Tillerson even though he was a career oil man, he agreed with climatologist scientists that the planet is suffering from human-made global warming.
Even though Rex Tillerson had considerable experience in business with Russia and its President Vladimir Putin, as U.S. Secretary of State, Tillerson was not soft on Russia; but Trump was. I wonder why? Special counsel Robert Mueller may have something to say about that before the year is out.
Tillerson promoted diplomacy with the rogue nation North Korea, which now boasts of having ICBMs that can reach the U.S. In contrast, President Trump has had a bellicose attitude toward its leader Kim Jong Un, constantly calling him Little Rocket Man before the world, even in a UN speech. One time, Trump tweeted that Tillerson was wasting his time doing the hard work of diplomacy in trying to get North Korea in peace talks with the U.S. All that time the leaders of the two countries were making very rhetorical threats, even mentioning their nuclear weapons capabilities.
There obviously got to be bad blood between Trump and Tillerson. The Secretary reportedly, in a private meeting that did not include the President, called the President Trump “a moron.” Heh, Donald Trump is president of the greatest nation in the world, his immediate successor Barak Obama was and is an intellectual, yet Donald Trump doesn’t even read books. As an author of books, I don’t know how a person can achieve that lofty position without even reading books.
In Tillerson’s speech, he spoke of having kindness toward people and being honest, something about which Donald Trump is so lacking. It obviously was a remark for the president to hear as much as Tillerson’s staff there at the State Department. Also in Tillerson’s speech, he never thanked President Trump for giving him the privilege of serving as Secretary of State. In fact, Tillerson sounded a little bit shaky in his voice. It must have been a difficult speech for him. It was because his boss is such a jerk.
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