Tillerson’s finally fired
Well, it’s been rumored almost as long as Rex Tillerson has been Secretary of State, and almost as often as those “chaos in the White House” stories have been published, and now it’s finally happened: Trump has fired Tillerson. And of course there’s no dearth of theories as to why this happened and why it happened now.
So I’ll add my voice, because I probably know as much (that is, as little) as anybody else except Trump, Tillerson, and those closest to them.
The first principle to remember is that Trump loves to fire people. Maybe “love” is the wrong word, but certainly he feels very very comfortable firing people and he created an entire TV persona around that fact.
The second point is that he and Tillerson have apparently been somewhat at odds from the start, and those constant rumors were based on something, although news reports weren’t getting the timing right. Exactly what they were at odds about is not totally clear, but apparently tactics towards North Korea was one of them, and that answers the question of “why now?”.
Trump and Tillerson have had a fraught relationship for many months. Trump told reporters Tuesday that he ultimately decided to fire the secretary because they disagreed over strategy in key areas of foreign policy, such as the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the approach to North Korea and the overall tone of U.S. diplomacy.
Tillerson said he received a call from Trump around noon Tuesday, more than three hours after his firing was first reported by The Washington Post and announced in a tweet from the president. His voice quivering, Tillerson thanked career diplomats and the American people for the opportunity to serve but notably did not praise Trump.
That last paragraph makes it sound as though the tweet and the WaPo announcement came simultaneously, but apparently what happened is that the WaPo published the news first, then Trump tweeted, and that’s how Tillerson found out. Had Trump originally planned to tell Tillerson in some different way, and then the WaPo finessed him? We’ll never know.
President Trump’s choice to replace Tillerson is Mike Pompeo, who was head of the CIA and seems to still be well-respected. Pompeo will be replaced by Gina Haspel, who recently became Deputy Director of the CIA and would be the agency’s first female head (not that the opposition will praise Trump much for the breaking of that glass ceiling).
This tweet by WaPo congressional reporter (the oh-so-objective congressional reporter) Erica Werner is typical of Democratic reaction:
https://twitter.com/ericawerner/status/973553009962704896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.powerlineblog.com%2Farchives%2F2018%2F03%2Fhow-the-democrats-will-respond-to-pompeo-and-haspel-nominations.php
If you detect a hint of weariness on my part, you would be correct.
As president, Trump is allowed to fire people he wishes to fire. He’s allowed to appoint people he wishes to appoint—with Senate approval. Trump being Trump, he will probably be firing people at a higher rate than most presidents. That’s probably not just because—as I already stated—he has little reluctance to give people the boot, but also because I would guess he’s not an easy person to work for and a lot of people are reluctant to be publicly associated with him. That last element was operating when he was choosing a vice president, for example (I was surprised at the time that Pence accepted, and I think so far that’s gone very well), and it’s still operating now, although I believe that reluctance has become a bit less powerful over time.
If he really was not in synch with regard to Iran and the Norks, then I can see letting him go.
I also think that this is partly because Trump was such an outsider he didn’t have much connection to anybody that would be qualified for these jobs so he is sort of finding out on the fly who shares his thinking on various issues and from what I have seen Tillerson did not and Pompeo very much did.
And also remember that Al Haig barely lasted longer than Tillerson as Reagan’s first SoS so let’s cool the unprecedented chaos outrage a little.
2 roosters in a hen house never works out.
What Grffin said. That also explains why outsiders (Trump, Ventura, Schwarzenegger) are never very successful. In order to control, or even influence, a polity, you need, among other things, a network of like-minded allies throughout the establishment (government, business, nonprofit). Reagan was a bit of an outsider, but he had those allies. Trump at most has an entourage, which is composed, like most entourages, of lightweights who can’t help him with anything consequential.
Delighted to see Tillerson go.
Hopefully, McMaster will be next…
On the timeline question, at least one source says that Tillerson may have been told on Friday, but the announcement was not made until today.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/03/tea-for-the-tillerson-2.php
“Meanwhile, I’m skeptical of the reporting this morning about how Tillerson found out about his sacking from a Trump tweet rather than directly. I don’t doubt that this is true, but it is also being reported that Trump asked for Tillerson’s resignation on Friday. If that is true, I have a hunch that the news was about to leak out this morning, so Trump and his folks decided to pull the trigger right away. But that’s not how the hair-on-fire media is going to represent the story.”
I think I saw a post with some more meat on the bones somewhere else, but of course can’t find it now.
Tillerson knew in advance — hence his ‘illness’ in Africa.
His activities there were cut short, BTW.
Tillerson’s fundamental problem was that he was too soon captured by the State Department.
Whereas Trump wanted Tillerson to clean house.
Pompeo is an azz kicker.
Expect to hear of a steady stream of DoS departures… particularly among the Arabists — of which the DoS is over-run.
( KSA has been providing ‘benefits packages’ for retired right-thinking DoS Arabists for decades. )
KSA has bought off the DoS as the whores that they are. They have no shame.
This is the VERY crowd that gave Trump Hell for moving our embassy to Israel’s capital. They all need the boot.
“Pompeo will be replaced by Gina Haskel….”
Ginal Haspel, that would be.
I agree with blert. I think the events being canceled in Kenya give us a hint that something happened earlier than how the Left is trying to spin this.
Funny, I think I probably now know more about what happened with Tillerson’s firing from Neo and the speculations of several astute commenters than I could ever get from the MSM. It seems to work like this. Neo gives an honest and considered first impression and then we chime in with our thoughts. Result: a credible first take on what might be happening. MSM: all agenda; no substance.
Barry M:
Thanks, will fix.
Excellent points, blert.
DoS needs reform, even more than the FBI. Tillerson was trying to cut costs and reduce overhead there. (He was heartily disliked by the DoS bureaucrats.) But he wasn’t on board with as muscular a foreign policy as Trump desires. There were many debates between Trump and Tillerson over Iran, North Korea, tariffs, and Qatar. Tillerson is a decent and accomplished guy, but the wrong SoS for this President.
Gina Haspel, who looks like a third grade teacher, is being cast by the MSM as the U.S. equivalent of Rosa Klebb. Will be interesting to watch the confirmation hearings. My impression is that she looks benign, but is tough as nails. An iron fist in a velvet glove. We shall see.