Tag: Rex Tillerson

Sputnik/Reuters WASHINGTON — At 9:34 on the November morning after Donald J. Trump was elected president in 2016, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and an informal envoy for President Vladimir V. Putin, sent a text message to a Lebanese-American friend with ties to the Trump campaign. But his report made clear how vigorously Mr. Putin sought to find points of contact and influence with Mr. Trump’s team — and how many people on the American side were willing to participate to one degree or another in discussions that touched on topics as varied as Mr. Trump’s desire to build a Moscow hotel to United States policy toward Ukraine. It is not clear that the Russians had much, if any, success in influencing American policy through the back channels they established, although Mr. Trump’s comments often strike foreign policy experts as remarkably sympathetic to Mr. Putin. According to the Mueller report, Mr. Putin wasted no time enlisting Russian oligarchs to carry the Kremlin’s message after Mr. Trump’s election. On the American side, a varied cast of characters was fielding overtures and proposals from Russians or pro-Russian Ukrainians during the campaign and transition, including: Mr. Gerson; George Nader, the Lebanese-American with Trump campaign connections; Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman; Michael D. Cohen, the president’s longtime fixer and lawyer; and Erik Prince, the Blackwater founder and brother of Betsy DeVos, Mr. Trump’s pick for education secretary. An American investment banker with many contacts in Russia, Robert Foresman, said that Mr. Gorkov told him before the meeting that Mr. Putin had approved his trip and that he would report back to Mr. Putin afterward, the special counsel’s report states. Mr. Gorkov publicly suggested it was business, while Mr. Kushner said it was diplomatic issues. As the special counsel’s report noted in recounting the meeting between Mr. Kushner and Mr. Gorkov, there “had been public reporting both about efforts to secure lending on the property and possible conflicts of interest for Kushner arising out of his company’s borrowing from foreign lenders.” The template of Russia trying to advance its policy goals through the business interests of people in Mr. Trump’s orbit was set in mid-2015, almost as soon as Mr. Trump announced his candidacy. Instead, Mr. Nader connected the Russian official to Mr. Gerson, Mr. Kushner’s hedge fund friend, and to Mr. On Jan. 11, 2017, Mr. Dmitriev and Mr.

The Department of Homeland Security’s chief watchdog is calling for disciplinary action against a Trump administration political appointee who has refused to cooperate with an investigation into alleged retaliation against career civil servants, according to a memo released Thursday. Christine Ciccone, a former senior official at the State Department and now an assistant secretary of legislative affairs at DHS, has failed to agree to an interview with investigators “despite repeated requests made to both her and her attorney over many months,” DHS Acting Inspector General John Kelly wrote to Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in a Feb. 13 memo. The State Department Office of Inspector General said a senior official's refusing to submit to an interview is “unprecedented.” That office is looking into allegations of retribution against career State Department employees, and has tried to speak with Ciccone as a “key witness” in that inquiry since September, Kelly wrote in a memo released by three Democratic lawmakers. When asked about the memo, the Department of Homeland Security did not say whether Nielsen would take any disciplinary action against Ciccone. The secretary “is reviewing the issue,” DHS Press Secretary Tyler Houlton told NBC News in an email. Ciccone is just one of several officials who have come under scrutiny over allegations that career diplomats and civil servants have faced retribution from political appointees at the State Department since President Donald Trump entered office. In a joint statement, the three lawmakers called Ciccone’s behavior “outrageous.” The three lawmakers demanded Nielsen take prompt action to uphold the inspector general office's legal authority and to report back to their committees by Friday to update them on the case. A Democratic congressional aide, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said the case was “another example of how Trump administration political appointees believe that the rules don’t apply to them.” The State Department has said previously that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would not tolerate political retribution against career employees. She wrote to her supervisor Brian Hook, then the director of the policy planning staff and now overseeing Iran policy at the State Department, asking for his help to “correct the record,” according to the emails. Hook forwarded her email to other political appointees at the State Department, who then passed it along to the White House.

Mr Trump has always approached the presidency like a reality television producer, which was his most successful previous role. No programme has been more closely linked to Mr Trump than his favourite, the inane morning chat show Fox & Friends. Blonde and attractive in the standard Fox News mould, Ms Nauert no doubt seemed straight out of Mr Trump’s vision of “central casting”, especially since she was unencumbered by any relevant diplomatic or administrative experience or expertise. _______________ Read more from Hussein Ibish: _______________ But central casting can be unreliable. The appointment of such a relative nonentity to the UN position conveys precisely the kind of disdain for multilateral institutions that Mr Bolton has championed. Moreover, she will be in no position whatsoever to challenge Mr Bolton’s command of US foreign policy and her media-centred and skimpy resume suggests the most she will be expected to do is defend other people’s policies on television. Along with Vice President Mike Pence, she was one of two potential successors as president within the administration. By the time Mr Trump had to replace Mr Tillerson, Ms Haley had ruled herself out as a candidate because she had used her UN post to become too powerful and independent. But Ms Haley was one of the most senior of Mr Trump’s initial appointees. Even if she does end up sitting in the cabinet, however, Ms Nauert’s appointment will strongly solidify Mr Bolton’s pre-eminence in foreign policy-making, typically in coordination with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Yet, one wonders whether leading corporations results in great preparation for the world of politics and policy making. The obvious pitfalls and challenges have been illustrated by a number of the business leaders who have taken the lead in government. Tillerson was trained to understand operational efficiency from the standpoint of engineering. Second, unlike running a business, a model of leadership based on meeting the interests of a small list of stakeholders, policy leadership involves building a coalition of often competing interests while serving the needs of a large number of constituents. After making their announcement, the coalition lagged in finding a leader and rounding up additional support among the fractious constituencies in health care policy and politics. A third challenge for transitioning business leaders involves the notion of risk. Risk is not a value in policy, however. Certainly, the often-cited poster child of the American CEO politician is former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has managed to avoid most of these pitfalls. His leadership in New York City, while not without critics, was widely considered a success. D. Christopher Kayes is a professor of management at the George Washington University School of Business.

-Written by Taylor Hosking (@Taylor__Hosking), Lena Felton (@lenakfelton), and Elaine Godfrey (@elainejgodfrey) Today in 5 Lines Virginia Senator Mark Warner announced his support for President Trump’s pick for CIA director, Gina Haspel, after she sent him a letter clarifying that, in hindsight, the agency’s “enhanced interrogation program is not one the CIA should have undertaken.” Haspel now likely has enough votes to be confirmed for the position. The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss the recent violence in Gaza. UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said she believes Israel exercised “restraint” in Monday’s clashes with protesters, adding that the unrest was not caused by the relocation of the U.S. embassy. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lifted a hiring freeze put in place by his predecessor at the State Department, Rex Tillerson, allowing it to fill various key positions. The Trump administration is reportedly considering using military bases to house migrant children. The Obama administration also used bases to shelter children during the 2014 child-migrant crisis. The Races We’re Watching Voters in Idaho, Nebraska, Oregon, and Pennsylvania will select nominees for House, Senate, and gubernatorial races in their states’ primary elections. We’ll be monitoring several races in Pennsylvania, where the state Supreme Court replaced a Republican gerrymander with a new congressional map that is much more favorable to Democrats. Drip, Drip, Drip: Bill Clinton was able to slow the flow of leaks coming out of his White House in his second year in office, but those methods won’t necessarily work for Trump. (David A. Graham).

Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke to graduates of the Virginia Military Institute and promoted the values of truth and facts in American society, saying that when we "go wobbly on truth ... we go wobbly on America."

He was a member of Congress for a half-dozen years and has run the CIA for well over a year without any significant missteps. So the fact that his nomination as secretary of State is even in doubt pretty much boils down to politics. And that's why the Foreign Relations Committee narrowly approved the Pompeo nomination the Pompeo nomination yesterday on a party-line vote, made possible only because Rand Paul bowed to pressure from President Trump. The Democrats don't really have a case against Pompeo, especially those who thought he'd be just fine as CIA director. It's their way of sticking it to Trump. White House officials point to Republican support for the nominations of Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. Trump took to Twitter to blame the Democratic opposition on "obstructionists." Pompeo would have lost the committee vote if Paul, who objected to Pompeo's support of the Iraq war, hadn't flipped at the last minute, using as cover the claim that he's now been assured that the nominee agrees with Trump's opposition to the conflict. So he will likely wind up being confirmed by a vote or two. Pompeo would have been the first nominee for the State Department's top job to be rejected in committee since votes started to be recorded in 1925.

SIMON: President Trump tweeted that this news from North Korea is big progress. And he has a seat at the table of world nuclear powers, at least temporarily. You know, Kissinger was the national security adviser at the time. ELVING: Well, we know that Rand Paul of Kentucky has said he will not back Pompeo. SIMON: Ron, I don't know if you've heard, but James Comey wrote a book. And it's interesting - congressional Republicans have pressed to have his memos documenting his conversations with President Trump released to Congress. ELVING: These are the notes for Jim Comey's book. SIMON: NPR's Ron Elving, thanks so much. ELVING: Thank you Scott. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR.

HOUSTON (The Borowitz Report)—Former White House staffers who were fired by Donald Trump held their first reunion on Easter Sunday in Houston’s Astrodome. The event, which drew a crowd of approximately sixty-five thousand people, had been organized by the recently axed Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson. “The turnout is just outstanding,” a beaming Tillerson told reporters. “Of course, most of these people didn’t have anything else to do.” The reunion was a veritable Who’s Who of dismissed Trump staffers, with such luminaries as Anthony Scaramucci, Sean Spicer, H. R. McMaster, Reince Priebus, and Steve Bannon spotted side by side at a make-your-own-taco station. While the event ran smoothly for the most part, there was one minor hiccup when David Shulkin, the former Secretary of Veterans Affairs, was briefly denied entry until he could prove that he had actually been fired rather than having resigned. “We made it very clear from the outset that this party was for fired staffers only,” Tillerson said. “But once David walked us through exactly how he got canned we were, like, O.K., you can come in.” Given the success of the reunion, Tillerson said that it was “more than likely” that he would schedule a similar gathering for next year, but added, “We’re going to need a bigger stadium.”

Today in 5 Lines After a nail-biter election, Democrat Conor Lamb declared victory over Republican Rick Saccone in Pennsylvania’s 18th district. Lamb is up by roughly 600 votes, and most outlets have said the race is too close to call. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is reportedly reviewing a recommendation to fire former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, just days before he’s scheduled to retire. CNBC contributor Larry Kudlow will replace Gary Cohn as the new director of the National Economic Council. Hundreds of students across the country participated in a walkout to protest gun violence and commemorate the victims of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, last month. The United Kingdom will expel 23 Russian diplomats after a Russian-made nerve agent was used in an attack on a former spy and his daughter. Today on The Atlantic What Pennsylvania Means: Conor Lamb’s apparent victory in Pennsylvania’s special election suggests that Republicans can expect a stiffer challenge in some blue-collar districts, but will be most vulnerable in suburban white-collar districts. (Ronald Brownstein) All the President’s Men: The White House, with the departure of Rex Tillerson, will become “more than ever the conniving and dishonest court of an unpredictable, ill-informed, and willful monarch,” writes Eliot A. Cohen. ‘Enhanced Interrogation’: A 2014 Senate report details exactly what happened at the Thailand “black site” run by Gina Haspel, Trump’s pick for CIA director. (Annabelle Timsit) Obama Is Partly to Blame: Adam Serwer explains why the former president bears some responsibility for Trump’s decision to appoint Gina Haspel to run the CIA.