Nobody knows for sure what caused President Trump to replace Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State, but there are plenty of theories. One of them is that Trump’s corrupt, self-dealing son in law Jared Kushner played a significant role in the president’s decision to let the former Exxon Mobil CEO go.
Last year, after Kushner had facilitated a harmful blockade against Qatar (out of spite, after being rejected for a loan) Tillerson held a press conference to try to undo Kushner’s misguided action. The Secretary of State called on Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt to ease their anti-Qatar blockade and announced that the U.S. supported a Kuwaiti-led mediation effort.
What infuriated Tillerson was that his position (supported by Secretary of Defense Mattis) was undercut by President Trump who that same day, criticized Qatar, saying the country “has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level.”
Unnamed sources said that Tillerson was not only “blind-sided by the Trump statement,” but “absolutely enraged that the White House and State Department weren’t on the same page.”
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It was well known that Tillerson blamed Kushner for Trump’s support of the harmful blockade which was opposed by almost everyone else in the U.S. government. “Rex put two-and-two together,” a Tillerson associate told reporters, “and concluded that this absolutely vacuous kid was running a second foreign policy out of the White House family quarters.”
In other words, Trump was letting Jared Kushner, with no experience, overrule the opinions of both the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense with respect to critical U.S. foreign and defense policy.
Since the blockade was imposed last year Qatar has worked to rebuild relations with the Trump Administration. Earlier this week, NBC News reported: “Qatari officials have reportedly gathered evidence on Kushner and other Trump associates about a conspiracy against Qatar by the United Arab Emirates.”
Reports have circulated that Qatar has decided not to release this evidence to Special Counsel Robert Mueller because they thought it would hurt their relationship with Trump and the United States.
Given this history, it is possible that Trump fired Tillerson (at least in part) to protect his son in-law from damaging media coverage centering on collusion with the governments of Russia and United Arab Emirates.
If so, this is just more evidence that Trump’s corrupt son in law should not be part of our government, and his presence in the White House as one of the president’s closest and most powerful advisers is hurting the interests of the United States and our allies.
I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.
