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By Britt Nelson
All you need to do is take one look at Exxon Mobile Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson to know President-elect Donald Trump means ‘business’ with his pick for U.S. Secretary of State. Tillerson is no gloomy, boring career politician turned diplomat like the current Secretary of State John Kerry.
Tillerson, 64, is a self-made multi-millionaire having dedicated his business career to Exxon Mobile where he has worked since graduating from the University of Texas in 1975.
He worked his way up the ladder to lead the world’s 5th largest company with global business interests in more than 100 countries, according to Wikipedia. Why not pick him as Secretary of State?
He hobnobs with Russian President Putin and many, many other world leaders. He obviously knows how to get things done. News reports say it’s likely Trump will pick veteran diplomat and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton as Tillerson’s right hand man at the U.S. State Department. Tillerson and Bolton would make a good team at State.
Critics are quick to say Tillerson has no government experience, but look who just got elected to the presidency without having held elected office. It only makes sense to have a better relationship with Russia and China, but maintain a healthy dose of skepticism.
In response to Trump being elected, a Facebook user posted this insightful response to news reports of Trump skipping some of his classified security briefings and his upcoming inauguration Jan. 20.
“It feels like we’ve all been asked to board a plane and the ‘pilot’ has no idea how to fly. Now he’s refusing to even read the manual,” the user stated. “Yet we are still scheduled for takeoff! Feeling a bit uneasy? Yeah, me too.”
What we are all witnessing is a forming presidency without precedence, without measure, uncharted territory for sure, but look at the past accomplishments of elected leaders: a government in gridlock, out of control spending, a Middle East still ablaze with conflict, worldwide foreign policy in shambles, inner city decay, guns out of control, and drug deaths that now outnumber traffic deaths. The anti-establishment president will arrive on Jan. 20.
Trump knows leading the United States of America into the future will be no cake-walk. His pick of Tillerson is an interesting choice that will be the subject of hearings and confirmation by the U.S. Senate. This cabinet appointment is destined to be debated more than the others Trump has selected, except maybe for Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis for Defense Secretary.
Speaking of defense and national security, it looks like a couple hundred more people were killed over the past weekend in Turkey, Nigeria and Yemen. All these deaths are tied to radical Islam and their suicide bombers. Thousands more innocent people are dying in Syria over the battle to regain control of the besieged city of Aleppo from the extremists. President Obama and his Secretary of State Kerry have wasted their time and have accomplished nothing in the Middle East. Zero.
President Obama just last week said again that radical Islamic terrorists were on the run with low morale and “contained.” Looks like Obama had better start taking his daily security briefings a bit more seriously. Either that or the information he receives is seriously flawed, or he is just dreaming.
After Trump is president and all these cabinet positions are confirmed, and his choice for the U.S. Supreme Court is seated, all hell is going to break lose with Trump’s promised relentless pursuit of eliminating radical Islam. Trump’s team at the State Department, Homeland Security, the Defense Department and the CIA will face their strongest test of endurance going up against the evil of radical Islam.
Tillerson and his cozy relationship with Russian President Putin will come in handy. Russia along with NATO’s 28 countries need to carry a larger part of the burden of fighting the extremists. Trump has already declared war on radical Islam as soon as he takes office. If the past is any clue to the future, the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East always seem as if there’s no way out, but Trump surely must see that removing the extremists and their ideology will be his greatest challenge.
All of the diplomacy that has taken place in the Middle East since the end of World War II hasn’t amounted to a hill of beans. This part of the world remains in constant conflict and a threat to the true nations of peace like the United States, France, England and Germany. There is no peace in the Middle East.
The ultimate challenge for Trump’s team is to find a way to bring a new era of lasting peace to the Middle East with Iran no longer a threat to Israel and Islam is returned to its followers and freely takes its place among the world’s great religions.
About the Author
Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.
Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.
