Day 418: Tillerson Fired by Tweet

The secretary of state’s tumultuous run is over.

Rex Tillerson has butted heads with Donald Trump pretty much from the moment he was tapped to be Secretary of State.

That tenure ended abruptly Tuesday morning when Trump fired him via Twitter.

Tillerson had no advance warning, and found out when everyone else did.

Trump has repeatedly insisted that Tillerson was not leaving anytime soon.

Tillerson, for his part, according to many reports, called Trump a “moron” months ago and refused to deny it when asked about it recently. He has been kept out of the loop on many issues, as evidenced last week when he insisted that negotiations with North Korea were not close to happening, only for Trump to announce that he would sit down with the North Koreans soon. His brief tenure — the shortest stint for anyone in the role since the Jimmy Carter administration — will likely be remembered for general ineffectiveness and the slashing of State Department staff.

For Trump, the firing continues a pattern of failing to do the dirty work face-to-face. He fired former FBI Director James Comey by having his bodyguard deliver a message to FBI headquarters while Comey was across the country. He similarly sent a letter to acting Attorney General Sally Yates when she was ousted. In December, he fired all the members of an advisory council on HIV/AIDS via letter. He also wanted White House lawyer Don McGahn to tell the Justice Department to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, a message McGahn refused to pass along.

In any other administration, this type of volatility and behavior would be surprising. For Trump’s, it’s merely par for the course on a random Tuesday.

418 days in, 1044 to go

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