![]() He has signalled he will not do so, and openly expressed his frustration that Tillerson had persuaded him to sign earlier waivers. ![]() Trump must sign a waiver on sanctions in mid-May for the US to stay within the agreement. Tillerson had consistently advocated remaining in step with European allies in abiding by the deal.īy contrast, Haley and Pompeo have unfailingly channelled Trump’s distaste for the deal – which could well be killed off by Tillerson’s departure. Haley’s widest policy divergence from Tillerson was over the multilateral nuclear deal signed with Iran in 2015, which imposed strict curbs on the Iranian nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. Haley described the reshuffle as a “great decision” and said nothing about Tillerson.Ĭongratulations to my friend and soon to be Secretary of State Mike Pompeo! Great decision by the President. ![]() Within minutes, Nikki Haley, the US envoy to the UN – who had pursued her own hawkish foreign policy in New York without reference to Tillerson or the state department – put out her own tweet. On the last leg of his African tour, he closed himself in his room for a day, claiming sickness, and then announced he would be leaving for home a day earlier than scheduled.īy the time his plane landed in Washington, it was too late: the execution by tweet followed just a few hours later. That incident led to speculation that there was a “suicide pact” among traditional conservatives in the cabinet – including Tillerson, Mattis and possibly the treasury secretary, Stephen Mnuchin – in which they would all threaten to leave if one of them was threatened.īut if the pact ever existed, it failed to save Tillerson this time – perhaps because he was out of the country and unable to rally resistance. When White House officials unleashed a flurry of unattributable press briefings in late November suggesting that Tillerson was on the way out, he held an early morning meeting with James Mattis – the defence secretary and his close ally – and the two of them went for lunch with Trump.Īfter that meeting, the president disavowed any intention of getting rid of Tillerson, declaring it “fake news”. He received a call on Friday from John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, according to the Associated Press, but that was apparently to warn him that there might be a tweet “of concern to him” in the pipeline.īut the veteran Texan oilman had survived similar battles before, riding out presidential dissatisfaction by marshalling his allies, and affecting a laconic unconcern about the backstabbing ways of Washington. Tillerson had known over the weekend that yet another battle was brewing. An hour later the news leaked that he had been summarily fired. Then Goldstein was said to have been “pulled aside into a meeting”. Reporters at the state department were told that Goldstein would provide a briefing. But a Tillerson spokesman, Steve Goldstein, told reporters it had come as a complete surprise to Tillerson, soon after he landed in Washington at 4am. The White House said that he had been given a few days’ notice. Tillerson and Trump’s offices even clashed about the circumstances of his departure. He spoke about the values of accountability he had tried to instil in the state department, not the administration’s. He focused on the selflessness of public service and did not mention the president. His voice was on the point of cracking.Ġ1:05 Rex Tillerson: 'I'll return to private life proud to have served my country' – video When he appeared to make his farewell at the lectern in the state department briefing room, he was clearly exhausted and emotional. A departure date of 31 March was agreed upon, but he relinquished day-to-day running of the department to his deputy, John Sullivan. State department officials had said earlier that he would leave his post immediately and could not confirm whether he would even return to pack up his belongings. Tillerson managed only to secure agreement for him to stay on formally until the end of March to oversee a transition. Trump phoned Tillerson from Air Force One soon after midday, more than three hours after the tweeted announcement of his firing. Most longstanding observers had expected there could be a tweeted rebuke from Trump on Tuesday morning, as there had been several times in the past when Tillerson had strayed from the White House line.īut the dismissal came as a shock nevertheless, at least to state department officials who had accompanied Tillerson on his final foreign tour, to Africa. Trump had said privately but repeatedly that he found Tillerson too “traditional”. It was the sort of statement of unquestioning support for an ally that would be expected in more normal times, and that was the problem.
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