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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRex Tillerson has been fired. Experts say he did damage that could last a generation.
In-depth article. I guess I can stop feeling sorry for him now.
https://www.vox.com/world/2018/3/13/16029526/rex-tillerson-fired-state-department
Rex Tillerson has been fired. Experts say he did damage that could last a generation.
Tillerson was one of the worst secretaries of state in modern history, according to experts from across the political spectrum.
By Zack Beauchamp@zackbeauchampzack@vox.com Mar 13, 2018, 8:54am EDT
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired by President Donald Trump, according to White House officials statements on Tuesday morning.
He was in office for a little over a year, one of the shortest tenures in modern history and it was not, experts say, a distinguished one.
Tillerson would be at or near the bottom of the list of secretaries of state, not just in the post-Second World War world but in the record of US secretaries of state, says Paul Musgrave, a scholar of US foreign policy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
snip//
Perhaps if Tillerson had developed closer relationships with States career staff, he would have understood that supporting budget cuts to his own department and downsizing staff would demoralize them. Perhaps he would have been able to develop new ideas that would have gotten the presidents ear. Perhaps he would have been more able to convince the White House to trust his judgment on political appointees.
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. But the truth is we wont know because Tillerson, to a degree nearly unprecedented in States history, failed to even try to work with his own department.
All of which invites the question: Why did this multimillionaire leave his cushy job at the head of one of the worlds largest corporations and then take a job at a government bureaucracy he didnt understand and seemingly didnt respect?
Its a question only Tillerson can answer. And right now, it doesnt seem like hes in the mood for a lot of talking.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,182 posts)underpants
(182,803 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)How bad do things have to get before Congress decides to end this clusterfuck
Initech
(100,075 posts)Trump wants yes men and ass kissers, and Mike Pompeo is one of the biggest of them all!
NRaleighLiberal
(60,014 posts)malaise
(268,998 posts)Kakistocracy
GoCubsGo
(32,083 posts)I have little doubt that Pompeo will be anything but worse than Tillerson.
brush
(53,778 posts)Obama sanctions were lifted by trump.
All that didn't work out so Tillerson's oil expertise didn't translate to being the top diplomat running the State Department.
Phoenix61
(17,006 posts)sanctions against Russia he would be in place to ensure Exxon got the best possible deal with Rosneft. Sadly for Exxon, the sanctions weren't lifted and Tillerson was unable to accomplish his one and only goal. Maybe he had convinced himself that Putin had stepped away from his roots as a KGB agent. It seems obvious Putin is as loyal to his roots as ever.
UTUSN
(70,692 posts)Of all the craven cast of clowns (apologies to clowns) who agreed or sought to be in SHITLER's cartel mob, most of whom did it for greed or power, Rexy chose to step down from being a powerful boss and to be humiliated daily, possibly (giving wide benefit of doubt) to SERVE (the country?). As for the damage he did to State, that's one of the PLUSES as far as SHITLER is concerned. It's like how SESSIONS continues to do everything he can according to SHITLER's agenda only to be humiliated non-stop. Not that I have any sympathy for Beauregard or Rex.
moondust
(19,981 posts)It's easy to spend years bashing and degrading government and government employees because "their" damn taxes and "their" damn environmental laws get in the way of maximizing your profits.
Then you take a job working for a moron in government and find out that international diplomacy is much, much harder than maximizing oil profits for a giant company that somebody else built.
underpants
(182,803 posts)buhleeveMe