Julie Pace: Trump ‘Really Gets Annoyed at the Way Tillerson Handles Himself in Meetings’

RUSH EXCERPT:
PACE: "So this has been a complicated relationship for a long time. Months ago I had a senior administration official tell me that Trump likes the idea of Tillerson, the businessman, the Texas swagger, more than he actually liked Tillerson himself. He really gets annoyed at the way Tillerson handles himself in meetings. He doesn’t like the idea that Tillerson, especially on this North Korea issue, has been pushing this idea of diplomacy, which he is the nation’s top diplomat. That is, in general, what he is supposed to do. So this is highly complicated. Tillerson has been frustrated by being undermined by presidential tweets. He’s been frustrated that Jared Kushner has picked up a large part of the foreign policy portfolio. And the big challenge for Tillerson right now — and I think the thing that I’ve heard that he is going to have to decide about in terms of his future here is, what kind of juice does he have left with foreign government? When he is traveling around the world, when he is meeting with foreign leaders and he says this is a position of the United States government, do they believe him anymore? And, frankly, talking to diplomats around town, they don’t always believe him."