Is Rex Tillerson doing OK?
During a visit to Geneva on Thursday, the secretary of state stopped to admire a statue while touring the city's parks and said, "Some days, I feel like I need to do that. Curl up in a ball."
Could it be that he is feeling overwhelmed by his job and, more specifically, his boss?
Tillerson reportedly has had a very rocky relationship with President Donald Trump, whom he allegedly referred to as a "moron." The "moron" story fueled media coverage throughout much of early October.
"I think it's fake news, but if he did that, I guess we'll have to compare IQ tests," Trump said in response to these reports. "And I can tell you who is going to win."
Tillerson has never explicitly denied calling Trump a moron, but he did seek to dispel rumors he had ever considered leaving his position. "There's never been a consideration in my mind to leave," Mr. Tillerson told reporters during an October 4 press conference. "I serve at the appointment of the president, and I am here for as long as the president feels I can be useful to achieving his objectives."
Several days before that, the president had publicly undermined Tillerson on North Korea via a tweet, essentially telling the secretary of state that his attempts at diplomacy with Pyongyang were futile. "I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man," Trump tweeted.
Tillerson was in Geneva to meet with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Organization for Migration and the International Committee of the Red Cross to discuss a number of global crises. His time in the Swiss city was the last leg of a weeklong trip that also included visits to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and India.
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