Rex Tillerson Out as Secretary of State

• Steve
• March 13, 2018
• 0 Comment
• 510 Views

Sometimes we need to have the fortitude to just stick with it.  I’m not talking about life goals, fitness, or a project, no I’m talking about the Whiskey Congress Trump Administration Deadpool.  With the amount of upheaval in Trump’s administration early on, Jim and I started to make friendly bets on who was next to either leave or get booted.  I’ve sensed for a while now that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was not long for the job for a myriad of reasons, but I finally moved on from him as a deadpool candidate in the last week only to have his number finally get pulled last Friday (while we were recording our show while i was picking a new deadpool candidate Jared Kushner).

According to sources, President Trump removed Tillerson from his position last Friday and by Monday had nominated Mike Pompeo, CIA Director as his replacement.  Deputy Director of the CIA, Gina Haspel has been nominated as the replacement for Pompeo at the CIA.  Both Pompeo and Haspel will both need to be confirmed by the Senate, and if confirmed Haspel would be the first ever female director of the CIA.

Gina Haspel nominated as new Director of CIA

Rex Tillerson never quite seemed to be a good fit in Trump’s administration, even though he did seem to fit the position of Secretary of State well.  Tillerson has no history or experience of working in government, but built a fortune working up through the ranks for ExxonMobil becoming the chief executive officer.  Tillerson as a private citizen working for Exxon he was able to broker deals with the Middle East, South American countries, and Mexico.  He was able to take that experience and apply it to the position of the United States’ top diplomat.

Embattled Tillerson finally out as Secretary of State

Tillerson and Trump seemed to frequently clash in their styles, coming to a head back in October when word got out that Tillerson referred to Trump as “a moron” in a meeting.  The former Secretary of State always came across as an old school establishment guy with a John Wayne ruggedness to him.  He didn’t seem to appreciate Trump’s boasting, tweeting, and self aggrandizement, and from the outside looking in, their style differences eventually may have lead to the break up.

Depending on how one looks at this situation the timing here is either really good or really bad.  While there is no good time to replace your top diplomat, replacing him months before you go into a big meeting with North Korea may make sense.  If Trump felt that he was eventually going to have to part with Tillerson then it makes sense that the President would want Tillerson’s replacement in before this major meeting takes place.  Also knowing that he was going to tap the CIA for Rex’s replacement, he would want the new director of that agency to be able to smoothly transition in as the agency will be working harder than ever before to gather intelligence on North Korea and their leader as their meeting draws near.  The downside of the timing is the gridlock in the Senate over a number of Trumps nominees for various positions.  If democrats and other Trump opponents in the Senate want to make like extremely difficult they could drag out these confirmations and make it difficult for the State Department to operate and execute the agenda of the President and the department’s new leader.

CIA seeing turnover as Pompeo moves on

What’s baffling is that Tillerson has been pushing for a diplomatic resolution with North Korea from the beginning of his tenure as Secretary of State, so why now that Trump seems to be working toward that diplomatic resolution would the President oust the person in his administration that has been calling for this very event?  Not sure if Trump is crazy like a fox here, or just crazy.

What we do know is that Mike Pompeo has long been tagged as Tillerson’s replacement.  There were multiple outlets reporting back in November that there was a plan in place to replace Tillerson with Pompeo but Trump opted not to pull the trigger on the change.  What’s interesting about Mike Pompeo is that he fits the definition of the “establishment” politician that Trump would seemingly want to avoid given his rhetoric about draining the swamp.  Pompeo graduated top of his class at West Point, served in the Army, graduated with honors from Harvard Law, and served in the U.S. House of Representatives before becoming the Director of the CIA.  While all very impressive, you don’t get much more establishment than a resume like that.

Mike Pompeo nominated as Tillerson’s replacement as Secretary of State

While not a surprise, it is a disappointment at least personally, because I believe that Tillerson, in some respects could help save Trump from himself at times.  Tillerson was not a yes man, and seemingly wasn’t worried about his career beyond this administration because he’s already worth billions, this is most likely his last major stop before the world of speeches and sitting on boards that pay him to show up a few times a year for appearances.  With Tillerson out of the picture, General Kelly’s luster fading, General James “Mad Dog” Mattis seems to be the only pillar of strength left in the administration with experience and a backbone enough to tell Trump to sit down and shut up when needed.  For all of our sake, hopefully the nightmare scenario never arises, and Mattis is able help navigate the President through tough times without issue.  Fingers crossed.