Rex Tillerson

Rex Tillerson served as Secretary of State in Donald Trump’s first administration from February 2017 to March 2018. A civil engineer educated at the University of Texas at Austin, he joined Exxon in 1975 and became chairman and chief executive of ExxonMobil in 2006. His appointment brought decades of experience in international energy business to the State Department, but he had not previously held a senior government position. ¹

Tillerson sought diplomatic channels to North Korea during an escalation of nuclear and missile tensions. In late 2017 he publicly discussed direct contacts and possible talks, only to have the White House distance itself from aspects of his approach. With Defense Secretary James Mattis, he also urged Trump to retain the multilateral nuclear agreement with Iran. Their position differed from the president’s increasingly explicit preference for abandoning or fundamentally changing the agreement. ²

Friction with the White House reduced Tillerson’s authority. His departure came while the department faced vacant senior positions, proposed budget reductions, and criticism from both parties in Congress. Trump announced his dismissal on March 13, 2018, as preparations began for a summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Tillerson delegated his responsibilities to Deputy Secretary John Sullivan that day, with his formal term ending on March 31. His brief tenure exposed the difficulty of conducting negotiations when the president and secretary publicly advanced different positions. ²