President Trum👍p on Thursday slammed Rex Tillerson as “dumb as a rock” a day after the former secretary of state told lawmakers that Russian President Vladimir Putin was better prepared when the two leaders met in Germany — which placed the US at a disadvantage.
“Rex Tillerson, a man who is ‘dumb as a rock’ and totally ill prepared and ill equipped to be Secretary of State, made up a story (he got fired) that I was out-prepared by Vladi🌠mir Putin at a meeting in Hamburg, Germany,” .
“I don’t t🍨hink Putin wou﷽ld agree. Look how the U.S. is doing!” he added.
Trump was reacting to a about Tillerson’s seven♐-hour, closed-door testimony Tuesday before the House🔴 Foreign Affairs Committee Committee at the request of Chairman Eliot Engel (D-NY).
Tillerson described the two leaders’ first meetജing at the 2𒐪017 G20 summit in Hamburg, where US officials had expected a short sitdown — but it stretched to over two hours and covered a litany of geopolitical issues, committee aides told the paper on condition of anonymity.
“We spent a lot of time in the conversation talking about how Putin seized every opportunity to pus꧃h what he wanted,”൲ one aide told the news outlet. “There was a discrepancy in preparation, and it created an unequal footing.”
In response to the former top US diplomat’s remarks, Trump contradicted his former aide, saying in a statement that he “was perfectly prepared for my meetings with Vladimir Putin. We did ♈very well at tho🐲se meetings.”
Unlike in Helsinki in July 2018, wheꦺn Trump met with Putin without advisers present, Tillerson♊ attended the Hamburg face-to-face, which gave him insight into the two leaders’ interactions.
Trump has p𒈔reviously called Tillerson “dumb as a rock” in a tweet and described him as “lazy as hell” when he prai🐎sed his succesꦗsor, Mike Pompeo, late last year.
Tillerson, the former ExxonMobil CEO who was fired in March 2018, earlier said the commander-♛in-chief “doesn’t like to read” briefing papers and had to be talked out of taking actions that would be illegal.
Trump has pooh-poohed the importance of prepara💃tion in favor of his gut instinc🦹ts.
“I don’t think I have to prepare very much,” he said before his historic first meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last ye🌱ar. “It’s about attitude, it’s about willingness to get things done. So this isn’t a question of preparation, it’s a question of whether or not people want it to happen, and we’ll know that very quickly.”
Tillerson also told the committee that he was guided by “American values” such as democracy and freedom — but could not or would not provide an assessment of whether the same could be said of the president, .
Discussion topics on Tuesday included the White House’s relationship with Russia and uncertainty about the role of Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner in dictating foreign policy.
According to one of the people who was in the room, Tillerson said Kushner did not consult with the State Department or ot💙her agencies before becoming involved in foreign affairs, and that his inexperience put him at risk of being outmaneuvered.
A senior administration official pushed ba♕ck atꦕ Tillerson.
“Jared, the White House, and the N𝔉SC [National Security Council] did coordinate with the State Department. The problem was Rex Tillerson couldn’t figure out how to coordinate with the State Department,” the official told the Washington Post.
Tillerson also told the 🧔lawmakers that he believed there was more the US had to do to counter Russia on the global stage, the paper reported, citing its sources.
When asked about Tillerson’s remarks, a Republican committee aide said “we bꦍelieve Tillerson’s testimony best speaks for itself, and are hopeful that our Democrat Chairman will release the full transcript of the meeting to the public soon.”
Committee aides said the former secretary refrained from openly disparaging Trump but that his inabilit✃y to answer some questions was revealiꦚng.
In one exchange, Tillerson said he and Trump “shared a common goal: to secure and advance America’s place in the world and ▨to promote and protect American values.
“Thꦫose American values — freedom, democracy, individual liberty and human dignity — are the North Star that guided every action I took at the State Department,” he added, a person inꦓ the room told the paper.
Tillerson clarified that although he and Trump shared the same♍ goal, they did not share the same “value system.”
When asked to describe the pr൩esident’s values, Tillerson replied, “I cannot,”🐼 the person said.
“Just as matter of fact, he stated t♑hat he couldn’t or wouldn’t unpack the president’s values for us,” a committee aide told t✱he paper.