Last Updated Nov 3, 2017 3:05 AM EDT
President Trump doesn’t sound certain that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will be around for all four years of his first term.
In an interview airing Thursday on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle,” Mr. Trump was asked by Laura Ingraham whether Tillerson would be “with you for the duration.”
The president replied, “We’ll see. I don’t know who’s going to be [here for the] duration.” He did say that Tillerson was “doing his best.”
Earlier this month NBC News reported that the secretary of state had come close to resigning and had referred to the president as a “moron.” Tillerson responded with an impromptu news conference in order to refute the allegation about threatening to resign.
The president and Tillerson had also just publicly espoused differing approaches to North Korea’s nuclear and missile testing, too. After Tillerson had indicated a preference for diplomacy, Mr. Trump tweeted that he was “wasting his time” in trying to talk with North Korea. “Save your energy Rex, we’ll do what has to be done,” the president said in a tweet.
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President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson seen Sept. 20, 2017.
Reuters
Tillerson will be accompanying the president on the 10-day trip to Asia that begins Friday.
Ingraham also asked Mr. Trump whether ongoing vacancies in the State Department were making it more difficult for him to carry out his foreign policy plans.
“I am a business person. When you don’t need to fill slots, don’t fill them,” Trump told Ingraham. “The one that matters is me. I am the only one that matters. When it comes to it, that’s what the policy will be.”
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