WASHINGTON
— President Trump on Friday rejected reports that he would soon fire
Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson as “fake news,” but declared that “I
call the final shots” as he acknowledged his disagreements with his top
diplomat.
The
president’s tweet was posted a few hours after Mr. Tillerson described
reports this week that the White House wanted him to resign as
“laughable.”
“He’s
not leaving and while we disagree on certain subjects, (I call the
final shots) we work well together and America is highly respected
again!” Mr. Trump wrote in a midafternoon tweet defending Mr. Tillerson.
It
marked an operatic turn in Mr. Tillerson’s tenure after months of
reports that he would soon leave the Trump administration. The latest
round was fueled by a plan to force out Mr. Tillerson that was conceived
by John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, and unveiled by
senior administration officials on Thursday.
The
State Department spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, denied on Thursday that
Mr. Tillerson was leaving. But the White House press secretary, Sarah
Huckabee Sanders, notably did not, saying only that “there are no
personnel announcements at this time” when asked whether Mr. Tillerson
was on his way out.
Mr.
Trump had also sidestepped questions on Thursday about Mr. Tillerson’s
future. “He’s here. Rex is here,” Mr. Trump said then, in an
underwhelming display of support that did not challenge the reports of
Mr. Tillerson’s pending departure.
By
Friday morning, Mr. Tillerson told reporters at the State Department
during a brief appearance with Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj of Libya
that the reports were “laughable.” He then headed to the White House for
two meetings with Mr. Trump, including a lunch with Defense Secretary
Jim Mattis — one of Mr. Tillerson’s allies. The president tweeted after
those meetings.
Despite
his years as a reality-TV star who routinely issued the line, “You’re
fired,” Mr. Trump has struggled with ousting his staff, even after he
has chosen to do so. Two White House advisers said the president
ultimately decided on Friday to bolster Mr. Tillerson with the tweet to
avoid undermining his chief diplomat right before he heads overseas to
work on a host of global crises.
Mr.
Tillerson is leaving for Europe on Monday on a weeklong trip, when he
will attend a NATO meeting in Brussels and then fly to Vienna for a
discussion at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe about the yearslong unrest in Ukraine.
The two White House advisers insisted, however, that Mr. Tillerson is expected to leave sometime in January.
In
the plan revealed on Thursday, Mr. Tillerson would be succeeded by Mike
Pompeo, currently the C.I.A. director, who is more closely aligned with
Mr. Trump on a series of important foreign policy matters. Mr.
Tillerson’s refusal to resign despite his disagreements with Mr. Trump —
and the president’s reported dislike for the diplomat — may have been
the reason senior administration officials leaked Mr. Kelly’s plan this
week to replace him.
Mr. Tillerson had previously and repeatedly denied reports of his impending departure, even going so far as to hold a news conference in October to say, “There’s never been a consideration in my mind to leave.”
The
debate over Mr. Tillerson’s status is the latest outgrowth of a White
House that has been beset by internal battles, high-level departures,
indictments of two top former campaign officials and guilty pleas from a
former national security adviser and a campaign adviser. All have
contributed to a generalized sense of chaos that shows few signs of
abating, even as the administration nears the completion of its first
year in power.
Mr.
Tillerson is a phlegmatic former chief executive of Exxon Mobil whose
personal net worth is estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
His continued service to a White House that so obviously wants him gone
has led to something of a cottage industry of speculation in Washington
about his reasons for remaining.
One
theory, frequently repeated at the State Department, is that an early
departure would cost Mr. Tillerson millions of dollars in taxes for
assets he sold to take the diplomatic post. Tax experts have dismissed
this notion.
After
being nominated, Mr. Tillerson was granted a so-called Certificate of
Divestiture that allowed him to sell off Exxon stock without having to
immediately pay capital gains taxes on those holdings. Two lawyers
involved in issuing these documents said that the federal law creating
this process — which is intended to eliminate a disincentive to
qualified individuals joining the government — has no provision to
withdraw this benefit, assuming that Mr. Tillerson completed the sale of
his stocks before he left his government job.
The ethics agreement that Mr. Tillerson signed in January,
after he was nominated, indicated that he planned to complete the sale
of his Exxon stock and other potentially problematic stock assets within
90 days of his confirmation. As long as Mr. Tillerson followed that
plan, the timing of his resignation would have no impact on his tax
liability, the lawyers said.
It
is also believed that Mr. Tillerson has become so wedded to a State
Department reorganization that he launched earlier this year that he
will not leave until it is in place. That is expected to occur early
next year.
Mr.
Tillerson has said the reorganization is his highest priority. He
intends to slash the State Department’s personnel by 8 percent and its
budget by 31 percent. The cuts are needed, he has said many times,
because many of the world’s conflicts will soon be resolved. This view
is dismissed as naïve both within the State Department and the broader
foreign policy community.
Mr.
Tillerson has made clear he has little use for much of the day-to-day
diplomacy conducted by his work force. Diplomats across the State
Department spent much of Thursday and Friday checking their phones for
news announcing Mr. Tillerson’s departure.
His
personal press aide, R.C. Hammond, is expected to leave his post this
month, according to three people in the department with direct knowledge
of the situation and who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss
personnel issues.
Mr. Hammond denied he would be leaving soon.
“You are not so lucky,” Mr. Hammond wrote in an email. “You still get to work with me.”
