Farewell, Rex

Nothing about Rex Tillerson ’s firing should surprise us, except perhaps its timing. Tillerson has often been at odds with his boss in the White House, whether on Russia, Iran, or North Korea. Though widely hailed as one of the ‘adults in the room,’ it’s not clear he had much influence at all on Trump’s biggest forei gn policy decisions. He waswidely disliked inside his own agency; civil servants at Foggy Bottom hated his insularity and his plans to massively cut the State Department ’s budget and diplomatic capacity.Even the casual cruelty of the firing should not surprise us. Sure, the President fired his Secretary of State via Twitter, while Tillerson was abroad, without apparently offering him any explanation or courtesy phone call. But from the man who fired James Comey, his FBI Director,via television while Comey was on-stage giving a public speech, this was almost polite.  But while Tillerson ’s firing has been expected for some time, it will have big implications. Tillerson may not have had much influence with the President, but he was one of the administration’s more reasonable voices. He apparently had a good relationship withSecretary of Defense James Mattis, acting as a sounding board for ideas, and both men have advocated against some of Trump ’s more disastrous foreign policy decisions.It ’s always been questionable the extent to which these so-called ‘adults in the room’ could actually constrain Trump on foreign policy issues. But with ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs