As CEO of ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest oil companies, Rex Tillerson was accustomed to giving orders and brokering multibillion-dollar deals around the globe.
Now he leads a State Department that was largely sidelined by President Trump’s disruptive phone calls with leaders in Mexico and Australia, provocative comments about NATO and China, and the now-blocked order suspending travel from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Secretary of State Tillerson will debut on the global stage Thursday at a G-20 summit in Bonn, Germany, and diplomats will watch to see if he outlines a traditional foreign policy — as he sometimes did during a rocky Senate confirmation hearing last month — or will embrace Trump’s more ad hoc pronouncements.
“He is trying to get up to speed while also trying to synchronize his foreign policy with Trump’s,” said a veteran State Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Tillerson apparently has the president’s ear. After he spoke to Trump, the White House issued a mild rebuke for the first time to Israel for expanding settlements in the disputed West Bank, setting limits for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting this week with Trump.
And the former Texas oilman is winning over skeptics at State who questioned his lack of government experience.
Several officials who have briefed Tillerson say he asks questions and listens patiently. His predecessor, John F. Kerry, a garrulous former U.S. senator with vast diplomatic experience, tended to pontificate rather than listen, these officials said.
President Trump’s fourth week in office got off to a rough start with the resignation of his national security advisor. Michael Flynn resigned late Monday in the wake of revelations about conversations he had with a Russian official during the transition between the Obama and Trump administrations. Here’s…
President Trump’s fourth week in office got off to a rough start with the resignation of his national security advisor. Michael Flynn resigned late Monday in the wake of revelations about conversations he had with a Russian official during the transition between the Obama and Trump administrations. Here’s…
Still, with Trump’s foreign policy very much a work in progress, Tillerson has kept a low public profile since he was sworn in Feb. 1. Except for a folksy introduction to State Department staffers when he showed up the next morning, he has yet to give a speech, appear on a TV talk show or hold a news conference.
America’s top diplomat was mum when the Trump administration slapped new sanctions on Iran for launching a ballistic missile. He also was silent when North Korea launched a mid-range ballistic missile last week, letting the White House respond instead.
One reason, perhaps, is Tillerson is still operating with a skeleton staff. He does not have the full team of advisors and aides who normally report to the secretary of State.
More importantly, he has yet to name a deputy, the official who runs day-to-day operations at State.
Among those considered were John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who is said to be favored by Trump’s chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon. Bolton’s candidacy foundered after State staffers complained he had a reputation for abusive treatment of underlings.
Tillerson reportedly favored Elliott Abrams, a controversial neoconservative who had served in the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations. He met with Trump last week, but Abrams told CNN on Monday he was rejected for the job after Bannon had signaled opposition.
But others also opposed Abrams. He pleaded guilty in 1991 to misleading Congress about the Iran-Contra scandal, although President George H.W. Bush later pardoned him. More importantly to the president, perhaps, Abrams wrote an article about Trump last year titled “When You Can’t Stand Your Candidate.”
One new Tillerson aide is Matthew Mowers, a former battleground states director for the Trump campaign. With a title of senior White House advisor for the State Department, Mower’s responsibilities are unclear. He has no formal experience in diplomacy.
Since taking office, Trump has toned down some of his more provocative foreign policy positions. Whether Tillerson influenced Trump in all of them is unclear, but the shifts put Trump noticeably closer to the positions Tillerson staked out in his confirmation hearing.
Trump had infuriated Beijing after the election when he took a call from the president of Taiwan and suggested he might renegotiate the “one China” policy that has been the backbone of U.S.-China relations since the 1970s, for example.
Last week, after Tillerson and others reportedly urged him to reconsider, Trump backed down in a long-delayed phone call with China’s president.
Similarly, after repeatedly deriding the NATO military alliance as obsolete, causing anxiety across Europe, Trump did an about face and vowed support for the 28-nation alliance. Tillerson had called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization vital.
Supporters are hoping Tillerson will play a moderating influence on Trump and bring him closer to mainstream foreign policy positions in an era of global instability.
Critics worry about Tillerson’s friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, an issue that dominated his Senate confirmation hearing, and whether he will convince Trump that the Russian autocrat frequently acts against U.S. interests.
Trump has spoken glowingly about Putin and hinted at easing U.S. sanctions — although his ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, later said the United States would not lift sanctions imposed after Russia sent troops into Ukraine in 2014 until Moscow withdrew its forces.
“I am not sure,” said Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, “whether [Tillerson] will be the one to say, ‘Mr. Putin is not our friend, I did business with him, this is how he thinks, you have to show you are tough first.’”
It is not unusual for the White House to control foreign policy either through the National Security Council or a small group of advisors, and to marginalize the State Department.
President Obama relied on a key aide, Ben Rhodes, to conduct the secret diplomacy that led to the historic rapprochement with Cuba, keeping the State Department in the dark, for example.
During his first term, Obama appointed special envoys for the Middle East peace process, and for dealing with Afghanistan and Pakistan, reducing the role of his first secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, in key areas.
Trump similarly has suggested he would put his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in charge of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — what Trump has called “the ultimate deal” — a task that has frustrated U.S. presidents and diplomats for decades.
Kushner, 36, who has no formal diplomatic experience, has become the primary White House point of contact for foreign leaders. He has held talks with numerous foreign ministers and diplomats — a job normally handled by the State Department.
Sharon Burke, a former State and Defense official in the Obama and George W. Bush administrations, suggested that Tillerson has room to maneuver as a diplomat because Trump’s relatively mild actions overseas so far don’t match his incendiary rhetoric.
“They want [policies] to look like a sharp break from the past” even if they aren’t, said Burke, now a senior fellow at the New America Foundation think tank.
After putting Iran “on notice,” for example, the White House slapped sanctions on Tehran that were similar to penalties Obama already had imposed.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Trump’s shifting foreign policy is deliberate, meant to keep his adversaries off guard.
Trump “doesn’t like to telegraph his options,” Spicer told reporters.
Russia denies that intelligence agents were in contact with Trump’s campaign team. 100,000 people living downstream of the Oroville Dam are now allowed to go home. Enrique Marquez Jr. didn’t take part in the San Bernardino shooting on Dec. 2, 2015. When the pastor at a Texas church urged his congregation to embrace refugees, 300 members left.
Russia denies that intelligence agents were in contact with Trump’s campaign team. 100,000 people living downstream of the Oroville Dam are now allowed to go home. Enrique Marquez Jr. didn’t take part in the San Bernardino shooting on Dec. 2, 2015. When the pastor at a Texas church urged his congregation to embrace refugees, 300 members left.
Russia denies that intelligence agents were in contact with Trump’s campaign team. 100,000 people living downstream of the Oroville Dam are now allowed to go home. Enrique Marquez Jr. didn’t take part in the San Bernardino shooting on Dec. 2, 2015. When the pastor at a Texas church urged his congregation to embrace refugees, 300 members left.
Russia denies that intelligence agents were in contact with Trump’s campaign team. 100,000 people living downstream of the Oroville Dam are now allowed to go home. Enrique Marquez Jr. didn’t take part in the San Bernardino shooting on Dec. 2, 2015. When the pastor at a Texas church urged his congregation to embrace refugees, 300 members left.
Even after Lake Oroville’s water level is reduced by a targeted 50 feet, water managers intend to further drain the reservoir so that it can absorb major rain storms and spring snowmelt, according to state planning documents.
Even after Lake Oroville’s water level is reduced by a targeted 50 feet, water managers intend to further drain the reservoir so that it can absorb major rain storms and spring snowmelt, according to state planning documents.
An evangelical pastor loses some Republican members of his flock when his Fort Worth church bucks President Trump and welcomes refugees. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
An evangelical pastor loses some Republican members of his flock when his Fort Worth church bucks President Trump and welcomes refugees. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Here’s a look at how the Lake Oroville emergency happened.
Live updates >>
Here’s a look at how the Lake Oroville emergency happened.
Live updates >>
It’s a busy time in downtown L.A.’s flower district.
It’s a busy time in downtown L.A.’s flower district.
tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com
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