Rex Tillerson is speaking out, and ooh boy, the stories he's telling about Donald Trump

[babylonsister]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/1/14/2009152/-Rex-Tillerson-is-belatedly-speaking-out-about-Trump-s-limited-understanding-of-well-everything


Rex Tillerson is speaking out, and ooh boy, the stories he’s telling about Donald Trump
Walter Einenkel
Daily Kos Staff
Thursday January 14, 2021 · 1:59 PM EST

When former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson was tapped by Donald Trump to become his administration’s first secretary of state, the only positive thing anyone could say was that Tillerson was someone who had some knowledge of the world. Tillerson is a crumb bum. But he does have thoughts articulated around what he believes are clear goals. We vote in order to have people other than Tillerson in positions to make national security and globally important political advisory decisions. The bar, of course, was set so low with Trump as president that having anyone not named Trump, Kushner, Bannon, or Miller in any position seemed to be a step up. That being said, Tillerson’s interests in being Trump’s secretary of state were closely tied to his fossil fuel view of the world and world politics. After he was fired by Trump, a steady stream of stories leaked out about Tillerson describing Donald Trump as something of a lazy moron. None of those stories were surprising.

In all of the hullabaloo of the past week’s events—insurrection and attempted coup and all—an interview with Tillerson for Foreign Policy slipped by with little fanfare. In it, Tillerson gives his usual run through of trying to be as helpful to President Trump and the country as possible, but he also articulates some of his “frustrations” with Trump. Those frustrations include Donald Trump being an ignoramus, acting like an ignoramus, listening to other ignoramuses, and being an inscrutable ignoramus. Tillerson explained that one of the fundamental hurdles he had to overcome in communicating his global policy ideas to Trump was the fact that Trump’s “understanding of global history, his understanding of U.S. history was really limited. It’s really hard to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t even understand the concept for why we’re talking about this.” This might be the nicest thing Tillerson said about the president during the interview.

Tillerson went on to illustrate how he began his tenure trying to bring “four or five things I needed to talk to him about,” and very quickly comprehended that a victory was getting to talk to Trump about two or three things. This gave way to Tillerson realizing he needed to bring visual aids like charts or images. “If I could put a photo or a picture in front of him or a map or a piece of paper that had two big bullet points on it, he would focus on that, and I could build on that.” We knew this but man, what a bummer. Asked how Trump made informed decisions if it was so difficult to make him informed, Tillerson said he didn’t think Trump made many “informed decisions.”

Another issue Tillerson said he faced was that the many handlers (and possibly Fox News) would get to the president before Tillerson met with him, filling him with fact-free opinions and information. Having a conversation with someone who believes things that aren’t real makes for a difficult discussion. Asked about Trump’s friendliness towards authoritarian leaders and antagonism towards allies, Tillerson said he couldn’t tell you what was going on in Trump’s mind. But, as Tillerson went on to explain, nothing ever panned out. We are in no better place with Russia or with North Korea, our issues with China have only become exacerbated, and our relationship with Turkey is even more messy.

[StarfishSaver]

1. Wow. The courage it must have taken to come out with this today.

[babylonsister]

3. No kidding. But now it's out. FWIW. nt

[burrowowl]

6. Not courageous trying to look good or cover his ass!

These corporations, corporate types, M$M, dump enablers, etc. who benefitted from tRump and his regime trying to make nice now remind of those who gave away people in the French Resistance to the SS and after the war claimed they were Resistants.

[StarfishSaver]

10. That was sarcasm

[panader0]

12. Putin-Tillerson-Rosneft and the Russian Order of Friendship

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/12/13/what-is-the-russian-order-of-friendship-and-why-does-trumps-pick-for-secretary-of-state-have-one/

[grumpyduck]

2. Sure, Rex, join the bandwagon when it's safe.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. Pretty much how Trump's former ghost writer, Tony Schwartz...

... described him before the 2016 election.

Schwartz had the misfortune of closely observing Trump for months, and then altering the facts repeatedly to avoid revealing Trump's sociopathic, uninformed, attention-deficient, megalomaniac, vindictive and stubborn behavior to the world in "Art of the Deal".

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all

[liberalla]

5. Looking forward to reading this tomorrow... but first I have to sleep.

Thank you!

[Cha]

7. Boy Howdy.. just what we knew but

interesting to read Tillerson give his inside view.

[Midnight Writer]

8. I gotta say, that Rex is a stand up guy, isn't he?

[progree]

9. But as far as our relationship with Russia, we're the most loyal vassal state they've ever had /nt

[Johnny2X2X]

11. The erosion of trust in America will be the hardest to overcome

The world will be eager to work with Biden and his people, it's a rebuilding of our entire foreign policy and diplomacy structure.

However, the biggest challenge will be getting the world to trust us again, because although they know they can trust Biden, they'll be wary that whatever agreements they reach with him will be torn up by the next American President, maybe even Trump in 2025.

Tearing up our treaties the way Trump did was unprecedented, it will harm America for decades. I think the world is going to wait and see many years if we can be trusted again, what they'll need to see is a Republican in office again who honors the word America has given in the past. A lot to overcome.

[Klaralven]

13. I don't think that Trump reads or writes well or easily -- probably very dyslexic

How he made it through college is a mystery.

His signature is that of someone who hates literacy.

Trump takes a ridiculously long time to sign his name
https://qz.com/891546/donald-trump-official-signature-trump-takes-a-tediously-long-time-to-sign-his-name/

[superpatriotman]

14. So brave

Not

[Blue Owl]

15. Big dumb dipshit Donny with his man-toddler flash cards

Fuck I hate that POS and hope the rest of his miserable life is a living hell...