How Sanctions on Venezuela Exposed a White House-State Department Rift
It took six words from U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to prompt a collective gasp from those in Washington who spend their Sunday mornings watching the morning talk shows, as well as speculation about how quickly he’d depart the Trump administration. But Tillerson’s future, Axios reported, was in question well before he told Chris Wallace, the Fox News Sunday host, that “the president speaks for himself” when responding to a question about Trump’s values and his response to the white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville.
Trump saying, “Rex just doesn’t get it, he’s totally establishment in his thinking,” citing examples ranging from differences over (Trump has called Qatar the biggest supporter of terrorism in the Middle East; Tillerson (which Tillerson has urged Trump to keep and which the president has called the worst deal in history); and on Venezuela (which the U.S. imposed last Friday over the State Department’s objections).
