The secretary of State was reportedly close to quitting in July until several top administration officials convinced him not to.
Earlier this summer, in a meeting attended by cabinet officials and members of President Trump’s national security team, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump a “moron,” NBC News reports. The reason for Tillerson’s insult isn’t clear, but it came the day after a meeting about Afghanistan in which Trump compared the process of reviewing strategy in the country “to the renovation of a high-end New York restaurant.”
In an August report about that meeting, NBC News said that Trump saw similarities between making decisions about the war and the reopening of the 21 Club in the ’80s.
When he called Trump a “moron,” Tillerson was reportedly frustrated by a raft of policy divisions within the White House over issues such as Qatar, Iran, and Venezuela. He was close to submitting his resignation at the time, but Vice-President Mike Pence convinced him to hang around, NBC News reports. Defense Secretary James Mattis and Chief of Staff John Kelly played a role in smoothing things over too. They had to “beg him to stay,” a senior administration official told NBC News. “They just wanted stability.”
Pence, NBC News says, has since advised Tillerson against calling Trump a “moron.”
