Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spends his first weeks isolated from an anxious bureaucracy
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson takes a private elevator to his palatial office on the seventh floor of the State Department building, where sightings of him are rare on the floors below.
On many days, he blocks out several hours on his schedule as “reading time,” when he is cloistered in his office poring over the memos he prefers ahead of in-person meetings.
Most of his interactions are with an insular circle of political aides who are new to the State Department. Many career diplomats say they still have not met him, and some have been instructed not to speak to him directly — or even make eye contact.
.. “When you put it all together, it certainly seems they’re trying to downsize the State Department and make it irrelevant.
.. Why would Tillerson take the job if he was not going to defend his agency?”
.. As an oil executive, Tillerson traveled the world negotiating deals behind closed doors, with just one or two aides accompanying him.
.. with assistant secretary of state positions occupied only by “acting” deputies, they have no one of authority to contact. Tillerson remains the only Senate-confirmed official selected by Trump anywhere inside the State Department building.
.. the White House embarrassed Tillerson by rejecting the seasoned foreign policy hand he had selected for a deputy
.. “We’re rowing against the current, and the current has a Twitter account,”
.. Tillerson’s corporate insistence on efficient time management did not serve him well
.. a sense among career diplomats that they are considered an obstacle to change
.. he will travel less than previous secretaries did and will take a smaller, faster plane that is more like the corporate jets of his former life.
.. No official note-taker accompanied him on a recent trip, so senior aides did the job to have a record of his talks with foreign ministers