12/7/2018

BUSH FAMILY/REX TILLERSON/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump denounced his first secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, as ‘dumb as a rock’ and ‘lazy as hell’ on Friday [12-7-18] after Mr. Tillerson said that the president had regularly pushed him to take actions that were illegal. Mr. Trump, who fired Mr. Tillerson with a Twitter post in March, lashed back at him the same way after the former secretary gave a talk in Houston and said Mr. Trump was undisciplined, did not like to read and did not respect the limits of his office…The caustic war of words came after a week in which Washington extolled civility as it bade farewell to former President George Bush and his ‘kinder and gentler’ brand of leadership. With Mr. Bush now buried, Mr. Trump dispensed with any remnants of the public restraint he had shown during the state funeral to denounce the man he once installed as the head of his cabinet and fourth in line to the presidency. The acrid exchange demonstrated several truths about Mr. Trump’s presidency: He often hires for top positions people he does not know well or, as with Mr. Tillerson, had not even previously met, grows disenchanted with them or alienates them and casts them aside. Those who go quietly are then generally left alone. Those who go public with their observations about the president’s behavior are visited with unrelenting thunderbolts from on high.”

Peter Baker, “Trump Says Tillerson Is ‘Dumb as a Rock’ After Former Secretary of State Criticizes Him,” The New York Times online, December 7, 2018