Tillerson has been shunted aside by Trump: Analyst
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is likely to reign by the end of the year because he “has been shunted aside” and the generals in the Donald Trump administration make the geopolitical policy, American writer and political analyst Stephen Lendman says.
Lendman made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Friday while commenting on reports which said President Trump and Tillerson have developed serious difference on various issues.
Tensions between Tillerson and Trump have been simmering for months, sometimes visibly as the two have publicly diverged on some of the administration's most crucial foreign policy challenges, including Iran and North Korea.
According to a report, Tillerson called Trump a “moron” during the July 20 meeting at the Pentagon with members of his national security team and Cabinet members and then decided to step down, but senior White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, had to talk him out of resigning.
“I wrote about Tillerson a few months ago, indicating that it looks like he could resign anytime from straightaway to be more likely around the end of the year -- ideally finishing up a year in the administration and then…leave it,” Lendman said.
“And why not? He’s basically shunted aside. He can’t get Trump to go along with his view of geopolitics,” he stated.
“I don’t know exactly what it is. But apparently it is much different than what Trump has in mind or what the neocons are getting Trump to agree to do. But Tillerson has other thoughts,” he stated.
“He probably will leave by the end of the year. He’s downplaying it now,” the analyst said.
“Basically he has been shunted aside. The generals in the Trump administration are making the geopolitical policy. Tillerson says one thing and then Trump contradicts him,” Lendman said.
“Tillerson is really kind of a fifth wheel in the administration,” he noted. “As far as big policy making goes, the Goldman Sachs do all – [Treasury Secretary Steven] Mnuchin and [National Economic Council Chairman Gary] Cohn make economic policy.”
Lendman said US Defense Secretary James Mattis and national security adviser H.R. McMaster “make the geopolitical policy. And Tillerson I think is the sectary of state in the name only.”
“He’s more of figurehead. But Trump is figurehead too. He is the figurehead for neocons making policy in America,” he concluded.
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