Dead Pool Heats Up, Rex and Trump at Odds
If you listen to the Whiskey Congress Podcast, you are probably familiar with our Trump Administration Dead Pool (TADP). Jim and I take bets on who gets ousted/leaves the Trump administration, loser has to chug a Smirnoff Ice, winner gets to gloat (I Steve, get to gloat a lot).
In our latest round of the TADP, I chose Rex Tillerson. Less than 4 days later, the Washington Post publishes an article claiming Tillerson almost left his post as Secretary of State back in July over Trump’s remarks at Boy Scouts of America event, and allegedly Tillerson even called Trump “a moron”.
Fast forward to last weekend (back to the future) where Tillerson is having diplomatic conversations with North Korean officials to ease tensions that had been mounting over the last few months, and in comes Trump with his twitter fingers. In a tweet this past weekend Trump stated “I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man…,” and followed it up with “…Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to be done!”.
While Tillerson, his representatives, Trump and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders all insist everything is fine, it feels like it is only a matter of time, before Jim is chugging a Smirnoff Ice.
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was on the verge of resigning this past summer amid mounting policy disputes and clashes with the White House, according to senior administration officials who were aware of the situation at the time.
The tensions came to a head around the time President Donald Trump delivered a politicized speech in late July to the Boy Scouts of America, an organization Tillerson once led, the officials said.
Just days earlier, Tillerson had openly disparaged the president, referring to him as a “moron,” after a July 20 meeting at the Pentagon with members of Trump’s national security team and Cabinet officials, according to three officials familiar with the incident.
In an unscheduled statement to reporters Wednesday morning, Tillerson directly addressed that version of events, saying, “I have never considered leaving this post.”
He praised Trump’s foreign policy agenda, saying he was part of a team to “make America great again.” But he did not deny calling the president a “moron,” declining to address that remark directly and saying, “I’m not going to deal with petty stuff like that.”
In a briefing Wednesday afternoon, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said Tillerson did not use the word “moron” to descibe the president. “The secretary did not use that type of language to speak about the president of the Unites States,” Nauert said. “He did not say that.”
The president was asked about Tillerson’s remarks after touring the University Medical Center in Las Vegas Wednesday and said, “I am very honored by his comments, it was fake news, it was a totally phony story.” Trump added that he has “total confidence in Rex.”
Steve
Steve is an affordable multifamily housing professional that is also the co-founder of Whiskey Congress. Steve has written for national publications such as The National Marijuana News and other outlets as a guest blogger on topics covering sports, politics, and cannabis. Steve loves whiskey, cigars, and uses powerlifting as an outlet to deal with the fact that no one listens to his brilliant ideas.
