Inside Trump’s White House
To get a sense of how insular and disrespectful, even to its own, the Trump administration has become just 30 days in, consider the case of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Tillerson is less empowered on foreign policy matters than the president’s son-in-law, who oversees the Middle East; his personal lawyer, who, reports say, was involved in writing a “peace plan” for Russia and Ukraine; and political adviser Stephen Bannon, who has an unprecedented seat on the National Security Council and deep influence on the president’s views on a host of foreign and domestic policies.
Meanwhile, Tillerson, one of the most powerful former chief executives in the world, is reduced to reorganizing the State Department bureaucracy, a worthwhile and substantive initiative, but perhaps better left to a deputy, if he could only hire one without prior White House approval.
Speculation has already begun on how long before Tillerson tells President Donald Trump that he didn’t sign up to be neutered and irrelevant, and he moves on.
While Tillerson may not stand for the humiliation and waste of his time, Vice President Mike Pence probably will.
Pence has been treated with great disregard and disrespect, too.
He mattered so little to the president and those closest to him that they allowed him to look like a fool when he denied that former NSC chair Michael Flynn discussed sanctions with Russia.
But, unlike Tillerson, Pence has reasons to stick around and bear the slights. First, he has an independent base of power through his former colleagues in Congress and with Republican governors. They rely on Pence as the steady go-between with an inexperienced and erratic administration. Ultimately, if Trump succeeds in his first term, it will be because Pence was able to work with Congress to pass some version of tax reform, repeal and replace of Obamacare, and infrastructure investment legislation, all wrapped up in a budget that enacts the Republican dream of lower taxes and massive cuts in entitlements.
Working for Trump must cause people to consider daily whether they have made the right decision for themselves, their families, their country. My guess is Tillerson goes, but Pence stays.
This story was originally published February 21, 2017 at 6:18 PM with the headline "Inside Trump’s White House."