about this. when the vice president and general kelly beckoned him to stay, was that on behalf of the president? did the president send them to him or did they do that themselves? they did that on their own. the so-called grown-ups in the room trying to perfesuade tillerson that, first of all, they needed an ally. he worked closely, i should say, with john kelly, when he was at homeland security, on the immigration in mexico, disputes and trying to work with the mexicans after the president s insulting phone call. mattis and tillerson were working closely on all these issues. it was on their own behest to try to keep things square. can he afford another major departure? this would be the most high-profile one of all. it would. david ignatius you reported about the fact that rex
head s up and running them through the traps. that is what caught people off guard. that is something that above all has caused a lot of the friction. some reporting suggested that there might be clashes with jared kushner and secretary tillerson. has that complicated things even more? when did that happen with your timeline? the kushner spokesman will down play that. there may have been some friction in the past but that s not the case now. here is the thing about tillerson. if the president decides to turn on him, it is hard to see who is going to rally to his side. he has no big supporters in congress, in the white house, and even in his own state department. when you are in that sort of dynamic, it is hard to see who is going to try to come in and save him except for perhaps the two people that did it in july, which is kelly and mattis. is that a very articulate way
tillerson is off on his own. the president felt dissed by tillerson s comment after charlottesville. the president only speaks for himself. till a tillerson got it badly wrong this last week in beijing. we try to communicate. we want to use diplomacy, not seeking nuclear war here. he didn t clear those words with the white house. white house was really furious. the spokesman thought, this is not a message from the president direct. this is a message to pyongyang. no. it was a message to rex. as i said in the earlier block with carol, i m not sure where this is going to end up. tillerson is going to have to apologize directly or mattis is going to have to say, mr. president, we need him. he is my wing man. something has to happen now. what do you think trump s reaction is going to be to being called a moron in the next 24
coast guard, get up and say a few words. air force, get up and say a few words. meanwhile 93% of the island without power, death toll rising and it will continue to go up. actually if you look at the tape it only ended when general kelly leaned in and whispered in the president s ear maybe it was time to wrap things up and move along. what were your reflections as you watched that yesterday? i shared what everyone on the panel has said. with donald trump, there is a focus on me and mine that gets in the way of his connecting and sometimes seeing what s out there. it s one reason that i, honestly, if worried about the growing friction in his cabinet. the balance wheel in this administration, in terms of foreign policy, has been the bond between rex tillerson, the secretary of state, and jim mattis, the secretary of
weeks and your reporting says months. the president is a moron. to say in the cabinet, he is going to have to go to the white house and say, i never said that, sir. i don t believe that. he is going to have to make a show of loyalty pechlt . he is a different guy. do you think he will do that? he is very close to secretary mattis. they talk every day. mattis is his strongest defender. do you think if they try to move to push tillerson out, how is mattis going to react to that? you hit on the key word, which is loyalty. this is a president that values loyalty above all else. he is very likely to see this comment as a betrayal. it is how he reacts to that. we don t necessarily know but if you look at his past behavior, this is something that he would take personally, because it is