President-elect Donald Trump’s pick of ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to be the next secretary of State is unorthodox, bold and controversial. Tillerson’s appointment could be a savvy move that produces positive results or a significant disappointment. The latter seems more likely, particularly with word that Trump is poised to appoint neoconservative hawk and torture advocate John Bolton to be deputy secretary of State under Tillerson.
But back to Tillerson.
{mosads}Tillerson isn’t a politician or a diplomat, he’s a businessman. There’s not really a precedent where someone with a similarly apolitical, non-governmental resumé became secretary of State, and there’s been considerable backlash in the media and among some political and diplomatic circles to the announcement.
That said, some certainly are in favor of him being the next secretary of State and confounding conventional wisdom.
Conservative political commentator Laura Ingraham recently said, “the career folks — it’s like they’re worried that their secret world is going to be invaded by someone who might come in and just show them all up.”
Choosing Tillerson fits with Trump’s flair for dramatic executive decisions — he’ll do things his way, critics or a potentially tight Senate confirmation hearing be damned.
Trump will do it his way even in the midst of claims that Russia interfered in the election to elect him. Trump will do it his way despite angst from the establishment GOP and from Democrats that Tillerson is too close to Vladimir Putin, and amid anger from scientists who accuse Trump of “creating a government of, by, and for the oil and gas industry.”
Support for Tillerson from neoconservative figures like former Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and James Baker, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and former Vice President Dick Cheney doesn’t exactly dispel this accusation.
The expected pick of Bolton for deputy secretary, an individual who believes military action against Iran is necessary and unavoidable and wants to execute Edward Snowden, adds to the list. Bolton eats war propaganda for breakfast. Add Bolton with Gen. James Mattis, who has a longstanding grudge against Iran, and Trump’s non-interventionist rhetoric during the election seems to have been just that: rhetoric.
Opposition to Tillerson on the right from politicians like John McCain and Marco Rubio seems to stem mainly from dislike of Tillerson’s troubling closeness to Putin, who bestowed him with the Order of Friendship in 2012. In the past, Tillerson bravely stood up to the Russian government over energy policy, but his business deals since then have made doing so again in the future very unlikely.
Opposition on the left has also highlighted ExxonMobil’s environmental record. In fact, some critics on the left see a sole silver lining in the chance that Tillerson’s congressional testimony may require him to open up ExxonMobil’s record on climate change, a record they allege is full of illegally hiding the extent of the problem. The fact is, Tillerson is not a climate change denier, and he has engaged at least verbally on it in the past.
There’s no doubt that business is different from foreign policy — or it should be, anyway. Tillerson knows how to make money and produce energy, but how would he react to a major diplomatic fracas when all his former dealings and contacts in that country were oil and gas-related? ExxonMobil is the largest publicly traded oil and gas company in the world, and Tillerson rose up the ranks from being a production engineer in 1975 to becoming chairman and CEO. The prospect of him just switching all that off overnight seems far-fetched. And if there are sanctions on Russia that are negatively hitting ExxonMobil’s bottom line? I think it’s safe to say they might be shown the door.
Author Steve Coll, who wrote a book about ExxonMobil called “Private Empire,” said the company is “a corporate state within the American state, with its own intricate web of international relations and, in a sense, its own foreign policy.”
To give the man his due, Tillerson is clearly a gifted businessman who knows the world well. He has plied his trade deftly across borders, language, cultural barriers and governmental intricacies. You don’t get to where he was by being a pushover or being stupid.
On the one hand there’s concern that business is a lot different from diplomacy; on the other, there are some parts where it seems pretty similar. He could surprise everyone and start playing chess at the checkers tournament. But he could also be what critics fear.
Trump made it clear during his run that he wants the United States run like a business, with winners on top, and he believes the United States “should’ve taken the oil.” As the purported winner-in-chief, Trump repeatedly made it clear he wants to transition from being greedy for his own sake to being “greedy for the United States.” From that perspective, a business giant like Tillerson who knows how to “take the oil” is the natural pick, but it’s also the reason that him being in charge of the Department of State could be fraught with difficulties and engender significant opposition.
Paul Brian is a freelance journalist whose interests include politics, religion, and world news. His website is www.paulrbrian.com.
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