Is This It for Rex Tillerson?

Curt Mills

Politics, Americas

Some of the much-maligned secretary of state’s moves have been misunderstood. But Rex Tillerson’s deteriorated relationship with the president threatens to render that moot.

If the whispers around Washington are to be believed, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is a marked man. Word is that the former titan of ExxonMobil could be out by Halloween. It would be a remarkable fall—the shortest tenure in modern times, the first secretary of state not to serve a full term since Lawrence Eagleburger from 1992 to 1993. The departure of administration lodestar Steve Bannon would still remain perhaps the biggest shakeup so far, but the early exodus of America’s top diplomat would be a remarkable scalp in Donald Trump’s game of personnel roulette.

John Bolton, John Kelly and Nikki Haley are possible replacements. Kelly’s nomination would likely sail through and relieve Trump of a chief of staff who has tried to lock down the White House. Haley’s neocon bona fides would be a plus. Bolton’s nomination, however, would risk an embarrassing failure in the Senate.

But there remains little question that Tillerson’s relationship with the president has deteriorated. The native Texan who rose from little to command one of the most disciplined corporations in the world is seen as just not respecting Trump. “I think it’s put Rex into personal conflict with the president,” one former ExxonMobil executive who worked extensively overseas with Tillerson told me. Tillerson deeply values process—“lives and dies” by it. It is the way of life for most senior Exxon brass, this former executive explained to me.

The president, on the other hand, seems to value chaos in its own right. “He probably doesn’t like Trump one bit. Because it goes against his values to like to somebody like him … But he’s a patriot and he’ll probably stay there as long as he can. But if the president starts undercutting him like he was doing with [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions … I think he would really struggle between fulfilling his patriotic duty and saying ‘I have become ineffective because my boss has compromised me.’”