Literally the first thing that came to my mind was, “did the president fire him by tweet? I bet he fired him by tweet.” Not kidding!
‘That’s not the way the world really works anymore. We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do’. (source)
And there goes one of the last “adults in the room” for the Trump White House (Mattis being the last one).
Tillerson was a terrible Secretary of State and he met Trump’s apparent mandate to destroy whatever agency his appointees are in (although unintentionally so). His departure doesn’t get my blood pressure up. Trump will continue his completely effed up and ignorant attempts at foreign policy. All the while, annoying our allies and enabling rivals.
The ongoing shit-show that is the Trump administration. (Evergreen comment, until it ends.)
Apparently Tillerson was told Friday that he should maybe cut his Africa trip short because he “might receive a tweet” from the president soon. So he may have made such a strongly worded statement because he knew he was on the way out. It’s clear that Trump hasn’t been happy with Tillerson for a while, because Tillerson pushed back on a number of issues. (Ironically, the White House just denied there was any rift between them.)
EDIT: Now it looks like the “they told him on Friday he might be fired” story may not be true, a ret-con someone came up with to distance the idea that the firing was a result of his Russia statement. Someone in the White House admitted that they just fired Tillerson’s aide because he contradicted that narrative. The ongoing shit-show that is the Trump administration.
World: “Tillerson is a terrible SoS”
Trump: “Hold my beer.”
Tillerson was an awful SoS. No doubt about it. At least he seemed to kinda sorta care about diplomacy as he bumbled through his job.
Somehow his successor manages to be oh so much worse. Pompeo as the head diplomat somehow manages to top the absurdity that was Jesse Helms as head of the SCFR.
Citation needed. To my knowledge, German authorities do not persecuteprosecute modern-day war criminals unless they are citizens of certified third-rate countries Rwanda or Yugoslavia. In particular, we wouldn’t dream of causing any inconvenience to our American friends.
There is also the problem of the American Service-Members’ Protection Act, which allows the US to declare war on any country who arrests any US government offical or member of the armed forces.
Normally I wouldn’t worry about it, but now we have Trump in the White House I could see it happening.
