Where Trump Zigs, Tillerson Zags, Putting Him at Odds With White House
Some in the White House say that the discord in the Qatar dispute is part of a broader struggle over who is in charge of Middle East policy — Mr. Tillerson or Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a senior adviser — and
that the secretary of state has a tin ear about the political realities of the Trump administration.
But his first opportunity to use that experience — as a behind-the-scenes mediator in the dispute between Qatar
and Saudi Arabia — has put Mr. Tillerson in exactly the place a secretary of state does not want to be: in public disagreement with the president who appointed him.
When asked to specifically condemn such targeted attacks in Russia, he said, "That is our position globally."
And when pressed further, he snapped, "Last time I checked, Russia is part of the globe." To many State Department employees, Mr. Tillerson is something of a phantom, who says little in staff meetings, rarely leaves his seventh-floor office — where he is surrounded by Ms. Peterlin and a small group of protective aides — and does not solicit their views.
Mr. Tillerson, for example, recently shut down the office of the special representative for Afghanistan
and Pakistan — whose role had been diminished since Richard Holbrooke had the job during President Barack Obama’s first term — and has yet to appoint an assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, at a time when the Taliban’s return and Pakistan’s instability are major concerns.
Robert Kagan said that It’s not that he’s a weak secretary of state or a strong one — he’s in a different category,
At the State Department, he finds himself negotiating with other power centers — from a White House with conflicting factions and priorities to the Defense Department — and managing a bureaucracy
that largely cringes at the president’s approach to the world.
