Analysis: In the end, no one was more surprised that Rex Tillerson was fired than Tillerson
WASHINGTON - Rex Wayne Tillerson spent a tumultuous year at the helm of the State Department, frequently undercut by the president he disagreed with on key foreign policy issues and derided by many of his employees who blamed him for marginalizing their role and diplomacy itself.
But after months of denying he intended to resign, Tillerson was ousted Tuesday just as he seemed to be hitting his diplomatic stride. In recent weeks, he grew even more outspoken in his criticism of Russia, more confident that his patient pressure on North Korea was bearing fruit and seemingly more comfortable that he would outlast his many critics in the West Wing.
In the end, no one was more surprised that Tillerson was fired than Tillerson himself. As recently as Monday night, while he was in the air flying back from a week-long trip to Africa, a top aide said Tillerson was staying put.
In a statement from a top aide about five hours after his plane landed around 4 a.m., Tillerson made clear that the gulf between the methodical former corporate executive and the mercurial president was as wide as ever.
"The secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security and other areas," said Steve Goldstein, undersecretary of public diplomacy for the State Department.
"The secretary did not speak to the president, and is unaware of the reason," he added.
Tillerson's departure followed months of disagreements with the White House over staffing and administrative matters at the State Department, which has a large backlog of unfilled jobs. But what may have done him in was a fatal disconnect over what Trump saw as Tillerson's conventional approach to policy matters.
Trump told associates he wanted a secretary of state who looked the part, and he liked Tillerson's camera-ready image and acerbic Texas drawl, real as barbed wire from a man who was named after two 1950s Western movie stars, Rex Allen and John Wayne. He also liked Tillerson's Exxon resume.
But the two men, who did not know each other before Trump's election, never clicked. For Tillerson, despite weekly lunches and frequent phone calls, Trump remained unpredictable and sometimes inscrutable. For Trump, Tillerson became an embodiment of "establishment" naysayers.
Tillerson has no singular foreign policy cause or achievement to his claim, but he had worked to open the door to talks with North Korea. Although Trump dismissively said last year that Tillerson was wasting his time trying to talk to "Little Rocket Man," the summit Trump agreed to last week is partly born of Tillerson's efforts.
A part of his legacy is in his pushback to Trump policies Tillerson considered unwise and argued against, a battle he did not often win. In private meetings with Trump, he told him he thought the United States should stay in the Paris climate agreement and should not break away from the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump has threatened to do this spring.
Tillerson also opposed the unilateral decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move the embassy there. Though he signed documents last week authorizing the renovation of an existing consulate, a relatively modest step that theoretically could be reversed in the future, he made clear that security - not politics - was his first concern.
There was an element of anticlimax to Tillerson's exit. Much of his tenure was dogged by rumors he was fed up and ready to quit, or about to be pushed out. But the rumors were persistent enough that the possibility of Tillerson leaving was dubbed "Rexit."
Tillerson consistently, and rather wearily, denied it. In January, he told CNN he would still be around at the end of 2018. As recently as Monday night, while Tillerson was still in the air flying back from a week-long trip to Africa, a top aide said Tillerson was staying put. Tillerson's plane landed at Andrews Air Force Base shortly after 4 a.m.
His exit leaves Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, along with Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, and White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly as the most prominent foreign policy voices, and all are roughly aligned with Tillerson.
Trump said Tuesday that with CIA director Mike Pompeo as secretary of state, he will be "getting close" to the Cabinet he wants and that he hoped to have the changes in place before his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Tillerson emerged as one of the strongest voices in the administration critical of Russia. For months, he has been saying Russia clearly interfered in the 2016 U.S. election, even as Trump shied away from any critical remarks. On Monday, Tillerson told reporters traveling with him that he was "very, very concerned" with Russia's growing aggression.
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