Tillerson Out

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired by a Tweet on March 13, 2018. Although he made it one year from his confirmation (February 1), the firing was not communicated to him in advance. He thought he’d make it through 2018.

Tillerson never appeared comfortable with Trump, in terms of style, tone and basic outlook toward America’s foreign policy objectives. But, Tillerson never mastered Washington politics nor got comfortable at the agency.

The Buzz asked, “Tillerson Gone?” on December 5 during the last wave of speculation about his replacement (Pompeo). Trump said the main reason for firing Tillerson was that they did not see eye-to-eye on issues like the Iran agreement. There were, in fact, a host of issues Tillerson had a different slant on.

America First

Tillerson’s challenge. The administration is:

• Hostile to alliances and multilateral agreements, TPP
• Skeptical of NATO, it’s a burden
• Anti-Iranian Agreement
• Moving embassy to Jerusalem
• Anti-climate agreement
• Hostile toward NAFTA, Mexico
• Hostile toward Russian sanctions
• Pro-Saudi Arabia vs. Qatar
• Removing 2,000 employees