Rex Tillerson on Trump administration
From Sec. Rex Tillerson | World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth · · dfwworld
“What concerns me is I don't know how much he learned from that first term. He's a very difficult person to help. He's not a good listener. He doesn't have a depth of understanding of historical context and that made foreign policy extremely challenging because he didn't understand why the world's the way it is in that part of the world. Why is the Middle East the way it is there's a reason you know but you got to go back 3,000 years to understand it and everything that happened since. There's a reason southeast Asia is the way it is it has a history and he doesn't know any of that. I mean he literally just doesn't know it.”
On , Rex Tillerson, Former Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at ExxonMobil, spoke about Trump administration during Sec. Rex Tillerson | World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth on dfwworld.
About Rex Tillerson
Rex Tillerson served as U.S. Secretary of State from February 2017 to March 2018. During his tenure, he described the administration's approach to North Korea as a "peaceful pressure campaign," which he said was the same as what President Donald Trump called the "maximum pressure campaign." Tillerson stated that the re-designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism in November 2017 was a step to hold the country accountable for actions including assassinations and the use of banned chemical weapons. He said the sanctions were having an effect, citing fuel shortages and reduced revenues, and expressed hope that the pressure would lead Kim Jong Un to reverse the nuclear weapons program. Tillerson was fired by President Trump on March 13, 2018, and announced he would delegate his responsibilities to Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan to ensure a smooth transition. In his farewell address to State Department staff, he said the department had "exceeded the expectations of almost everyone" with the North Korea pressure campaign and noted accomplishments including ceasefires in Syria and the adoption of a South Asia strategy. He also said Russia must "assess carefully" its actions, warning that continuing on its current trajectory could lead to "greater isolation." In his final remarks, Tillerson told staff that Washington "can be a very mean-spirited town" but that "you don't have to choose to participate in that."