STATE DEPARTMENT —
Rex Tillerson, a prominent business executive friendly with Russia’s president and who has spent his 41-year career at the same oil company, remains the leading candidate Monday to run the State Department in the Trump administration.
But President-elect Donald Trump may be forced to select someone else, such as former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, as the requisite Republican support in the U.S. Senate for Tillerson looks shaky.
In his latest comment on Tillerson, the president-elect wrote Sunday on the Twitter social media platform, “Whether I choose him or not for “State”- Rex Tillerson, the Chairman & CEO of ExxonMobil, is a world class player and dealmaker. Stay tuned!”
FILE – President-elect Donald Trump is interviewed by Chris Wallace of “Fox News Sunday” at Trump Tower in New York, Dec. 10, 2016.
Some interpret the Trump tweet as an indication the president-elect is aware of the difficulty Tillerson would face in Senate confirmation hearings and that he is likely to choose someone else, such as Romney or conservative 13-term Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher, known for his human rights activism.
Also mentioned as remaining contenders are Jon Huntsman, who was governor of Utah and ambassador to China.
Russia ties
It is perceived that former ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton hurt his chances for the top job with his suggestion the hacking of computers belonging to the Republican and Democratic national committees attributed to Russia could have been a “false flag” conjured up by the Obama administration.
Tillerson’s relationship with Putin “is a matter of concern,” Senator John McCain, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said Sunday in separate interviews.
Speaking earlier this year at the University of Texas, Tillerson acknowledged, “I have a very close relationship with him,” having known Putin for more than 15 years.
FILE – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, right, and Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil’s chief executive smile during a signing ceremony in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Aug. 30, 2011.
Putin in 2013 awarded Russia’s Order of Friendship to Tillerson, who has guided huge Exxon Mobile deals with Russian companies for exploration and production of oil and gas and has opposed U.S. sanctions on Moscow.
The Kremlin on Monday praised Tillerson, calling him “highly professional.”
Amid reports the CIA concluded Russia interfered in the U.S. election in favor of Trump, a secretary of state with deep Russian ties would face significant scrutiny in confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill.
There is a bipartisan push for a thorough investigation of the alleged Russian involvement in the U.S. electoral process.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Marco Rubio, who like McCain is a Republican, also expressed doubt about Tillerson, tweeting “Being a friend of Vladimir is not an attribute I am hoping for from a #SecretaryOfState.”
Based on the current composition of the Senate, if all Democrats vote in unison against any nominee and two Republicans join them then the next president’s choice would be rejected.
Democrat Ed Markey, a clean energy advocate, predicts the Trump administration will face “a major battle if Tillerson is nominated,” asserting “we cannot allow oil to replace diplomacy as the currency of the U.S. Department of State.”
On climate change matters “Tillerson or any other nominee will do Trump’s bidding,” said Bob Tippee, editor of Oil & Gas Journal. “The selection of Tillerson would further inflame climate activists, which might be the point.”
Tillerson, Exxon and foreign affairs
Tillerson, who is due to leave his company next year when he reaches its mandatory retirement age of 65, met with Trump earlier this month and again Saturday.
FILE – ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson speaks during the 26th World Gas Conference in Paris, France, June 2, 2015.
“Tillerson’s comfort with and understanding of organizational formality might equip him uniquely to deal with the Foggy Bottom establishment, which has cultural rigidities of its own,” Tippee told VOA. “I find this really interesting and potentially transformative.”
Tillerson’s career has given him numerous skills necessary for a competent top diplomat, “absorbing complex political analysis, evaluating foreign leaders, attending ceremonial events, and negotiating with friends and adversaries,” according to Steve Coll, author of a book about ExxonMobile called Private Empire.
The company, which eschews interference in the 50 countries in which it operates, sees itself “as an independent, transnational corporate sovereign in the world, a power independent of the American government, one devoted firmly to shareholder interests and possessed of its own foreign policy,” writes Coll in the latest online edition of New Yorker magazine.
The energy giant’s foreign policy sometimes has more impact in countries than does the State Department, says Coll, describing Exxon executives as regarding U.S. diplomats with disdain, if not contempt, for a perceived bias against oil and their inability to understand sensitive and complex oil-deal negotiations.
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