We’ve had farmers, lawyers, career diplomats, and lots and lots of politicians and party apparatchiks as Secretaries of State but we have never had a lifelong businessman without previous government or diplomatic experience. Until now. The New York Times reports that the Senate has confirmed Rex Tillerson as the next Secretary of State:
WASHINGTON — Rex W. Tillerson, the former chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil, was confirmed by the Senate on Wednesday in a 56-to-43 vote to become the nation’s 69th secretary of state just as serious strains have emerged with important international allies.
The votes against Mr. Tillerson’s confirmation were the most in Senate history for a secretary of state, a reflection of Democratic unease with President Trump’s early foreign policy pronouncements that threaten to upend a multilateral approach that has guided United States presidents since World War II.
Thirteen senators voted in 2005 against Condoleezza Rice in the midst of a deteriorating Iraq war, and in 1825, Henry Clay was confirmed 27 to 14, the record for votes against until Wednesday, according to a tally provided by the Senate Historical Office.
In a brief swearing-in ceremony in the Oval Office on Wednesday evening, Mr. Trump said Mr. Tillerson understood “the importance of strengthening our alliances and forming new alliances to enhance our strategic interests and the safety of our people.â€
To the best of my knowledge the closest we’ve come previously is Edward J. Stettinius, Jr., Secretary of State during Franklin Roosevelt’s fourth term. But he’d jumped from business to government and back again throughout the 30s and 40s. Not really comparable.
I don’t think that Mr. Tillerson is completely unqualified for the job as some critics would have it. IMO the claim merely indicates an ignorance of what modern big company CEOs actually do. They’re politicians, negotiators, and diplomats as well as managers. Will his skills translate to the public sector? I think that most will but only time will tell.
I hope he devotes a substantial portion of his energies and those skills to modernizing the organization and operations of the Department of State. It could use it. Above all State should not be allowed to be a shadow government as is too often the case now.
I don’t believe that Rex Tillerson should present much concern. Our real worry is President Trump. Either he will learn quickly and grow in the job or he will inevitably get us into trouble.
“Above all State should not be allowed to be a shadow government as is too often the case now.”
I think that will be his biggest challenge. There is a lot of institutional opposition to Trump at State and Tillerson will have a tough challenge to manage that.
“I don’t believe that Rex Tillerson should present much concern. Our real worry is President Trump. Either he will learn quickly and grow in the job or he will inevitably get us into trouble.”
Maybe it’s just me, but if I were one of the Cabinet secretaries I’d be worried about getting thrown under the bus. Trump has a strong tendency to go off the reservation and leave a mess his secretaries will have to clean up. I wonder how much BS someone like Mattis will put up with if.
It didn’t start with Trump and unless steps are taken it won’t stop when he’s gone. The attitude of career diplomats and other State employees towards political appointees and elected officials has been passive aggressive at best for as long as I can remember.
It’s public knowledge that the State Department has it’s back up against the incoming administration. Along with this built-in hostility is the State Department’s inherent flaws/dysfunction/mismanagement of funds and human assets exposed during SOS Clinton’s reign, and continued forward into Kerry’s term.
Consequently, it seems Tillerson will be walking into a bureaucratic setting churning with fires to put out and requiring a top to bottom reorganization within the state department. Perhaps, Tillerson will look back on his private sector days with more fondness…..
“The attitude of career diplomats and other State employees towards political appointees and elected officials has been passive aggressive at best for as long as I can remember.”
Very true, but I’m not sure how that can be changed. Organizational cultures are pretty resilient when the top-level leadership changes every 4 years or so.