Tillerson, Exxon CEO with close links to Putin, is chosen by Trump to be secretary of state

Posted by DanielS on Monday, 12 December 2016 11:23.

Update: New York Times, “Trump Picks Rex Tillerson, Exxon C.E.O., as Secretary of State”, 12 Dec 2016:

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump on Monday settled on Rex W. Tillerson, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, to be his secretary of state, dismissing bipartisan concerns that the globe-trotting leader of the energy giant had forged a too-cozy relationship with Vladimir V. Putin, the president of Russia, transition officials said.

Mr. Trump planned to announce the selection on Tuesday morning, finally bringing to an end his public and chaotic deliberations over choosing the nation’s top diplomat — a process that at times veered from rewarding Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of his most loyal supporters, to musing about whether Mitt Romney, one of his most vicious critics, might be forgiven.

Russia’s Prime Minister Putin speaks with Tillerson in Sochi in 2011

President-Elect Trump ‘will name Exxon CEO with close links to Putin as his secretary of state’, snubbing Mitt Romney.”

DM, “BREAKING NEWS, 10 Dec 2016:

Trump is expected to name Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.

Exxon Mobil chief emerged on Friday as the leading candidate.

Favored status was revealed as Giuliani withdrew.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name the chief executive of Exxon Mobil as the country’s top diplomat, NBC News reported Saturday.

Exxon chief Rex Tillerson emerged on Friday as Trump’s leading candidate for U.S. secretary of state and is expected to meet with him later on Saturday, a transition official told Reuters.

NBC News cited two sources close to the transition team in reporting that Tillerson will be named as secretary of state.

The president-elect had interviewed 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney twice – taking him to a three-Michelin starred dinner on one of those occasions.

Should Tillerson be nominated, his business ties, too, will come under scrutiny. Exxon Mobil has operations in more than 50 countries and boasts that it explores for oil and natural gas on six continents.

In 2011, Exxon Mobil signed a deal with Rosneft, Russia’s largest state-owned oil company, for joint oil exploration and production. Since then, the companies have formed 10 joint ventures for projects in Russia.

In 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded Tillerson his nation’s Order of Friendship.

‘He has had more interactive time with Vladimir Putin than probably any other American with the exception of Henry Kissinger,’ John Hamre, a deputy defense secretary to Bill Clinton told the Wall Street Journal.

But U.S. sanctions against Russia for its incursion into Crimea cost Exxon Mobil dearly, forcing it to scrap some projects and costing it at least $1 billion in losses. Tillerson has been a vocal critic of the sanctions.

Trump has spoken of wanting warmer relations with Moscow, which has sparked concerns in Congress that he could lift or loosen some of the sanctions on Russia.

Tillerson has been chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil since 2006. He is expected to retire from the company next year.

Should Tillerson be nominated, climate change could be another divisive issue. The company is under investigation by the New York Attorney General’s Office for allegedly misleading investors, regulators and the public on what it knew about global warming.

Trump’s campaign was unavailable for comment.



Comments:


1

Posted by Luzer on Sat, 10 Dec 2016 21:16 | #

Sounds good.  Russia is not our enemy (no matter how hard YKW pushes it).  No need to be BFF, but no reason to get into a fight with them over Ukraine or Syria.  Besides, they are a good people.  The 3 Romes and all that.


2

Posted by DanielS on Sun, 11 Dec 2016 00:28 | #

Luzer, if it sounds good to you, well, I’ll be polite - you have a lot to learn about the corruption of governments - notably US and Russian, but especially Israeli and Jewish infiltration and influence in both.

Russian ethno-nationalism is not our enemy, but the Russian Federation, its government, its Jewish, neo-liberal and propositionalist inputs are not ethno-nationalism - they are antagonists of it.

It is the Jews who started the trouble in Ukraine. It is the Jews who started the trouble with Syria. But Russia deprived Assad of his weapons program by which it could have defended its sovereignty.

Russians may be fine people inasmuch as they are ethnonationalsits, which I believe they are prepared to be. However they have an empire (not an ethnnostate) which is rife with Jewish influence and in conflict with vital Asian and White ethno nationalist interests.

3 Romes bullshit.


3

Posted by Tillerson's connections and Putin on Sun, 11 Dec 2016 05:48 | #

Zero Hedge, “Trump Picks Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson As Secretary Of State”, 10 Dec 2016:

In a move that is certain to infuriate those who see Trump as nothing more than a puppet of the Kremlin, moments ago NBC reported that Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil and late entrant into the SecState race after his first meeting with the president elect this past Tuesday at the Trump Tower, has been picked by Trump to serve as his next Secretary of State.

As NBC adds, Tillerson met Saturday with Trump at Trump Tower in New York, the president-elect’s spokesperson confirmed.  The selection of Tillerson comes after Trump and his transition team spent weeks searching for someone to fill the post of the top U.S. diplomat. Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani were reportedly in the running. Giuliani said Friday he had taken his name out of consideration.

The 64-year-old Texas oilman, whose friends describe as a staunch conservative, emerged as a Secretary of State contender only last week following a meeting with Trump, when it was speculated that he would consider the offer “due to his sense of patriotic duty and because he is set to retire from the company next year.” Tillerson’s appointment would introduce the potential for sticky conflicts of interest because of his financial stake in Exxon: he owns Exxon shares worth $151 million, according to recent securities filings.

A quick biographical sketch of Tillerson courtesy of the WSJ:

The son of a local Boy Scouts administrator, Tillerson was born in Wichita Falls, Texas. He attended the University of Texas, where he studied civil engineering, was a drummer in the Longhorn band and participated in a community service-oriented fraternity.

He joined Exxon in 1975 and has spent his entire career at the company.

For most of his adult life, he has also been closely involved with the Boy Scouts of America, even occasionally incorporating the Scout Law and Scout Oath into his speeches.  Mr. Tillerson played an instrumental role in leading the organization to change its policy to allow gay youth to participate in 2013, Mr. Hamre said. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates subsequently moved to lift the organization’s ban on gay adult leaders as Boy Scouts president in 2015.  “Most of the reason that organizations fail at change is pretty simple: People don’t understand why,” Mr. Tillerson said in a speech after the 2013 decision, urging leaders to communicate about the policy to help make it successful. “We’re going to serve kids and make the leaders of tomorrow.”

* * *

However it is not his Boy Scout exploits that will be the key talking point for pundits in the coming days, but rather his close relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

According to the WSJ, few U.S. citizens are closer to Mr. Putin than Mr. Tillerson,  a recipient of Russia’s Order of Friendship, bestowed by the president…

... who has known Putin since he represented Exxon’s interests in Russia during the regime of Boris Yeltsin.

“He has had more interactive time with Vladimir Putin than probably any other American with the exception of Henry Kissinger,” said John Hamre, a former deputy defense secretary during the Clinton administration and president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank where Mr. Tillerson is a board member.

In 2011, Mr. Tillerson struck a deal giving Exxon access to prized Arctic resources in Russia as well as allowing Russia’s state oil company, OAO Rosneft, to invest in Exxon concessions all over the world. The following year, the Kremlin bestowed the country’s Order of Friendship decoration on Mr. Tillerson.

The deal would have been transformative for Exxon. Mr. Putin at the time called it one of the most important involving Russia and the U.S., forecasting that the partnership could eventually spend $500 billion. But it was subsequently blocked by sanctions on Russia that the U.S. and its allies imposed two years ago after the country’s invasion of Crimea and conflicts with Ukraine.

Tillerson spoke against the sanctions at the company’s annual meeting in 2014. “We always encourage the people who are making those decisions to consider the very broad collateral damage of who are they really harming with sanctions,” he said.

As such, many have speculated that under his regime, the State Department may quietly drop any existing sactions against Russia.

* * *

Then there is the thorny issue of potential conflicts of interest, and his massive holdings of Exxon stock.

One of the first issues Tillerson would have to resolve as secretary of state would be his holdings of Exxon shares, many of which aren’t scheduled to vest for almost a decade. The value of those shares could go up if the sanctions on Russia were lifted.

The shares would likely have to be sold under State Department ethics rules, Chase Untermeyer, a former U.S. Ambassador to Qatar, said in an interview. “He could not erase his strong relationship with a particular country,” Mr. Untermeyer said. “The best protection from a conflict of interest is transparency.”

Tillerson will sell his $150+ million in XOM shares tax free, courtesy of the same tax break that was introduced in 1989 under the administration of President George H.W. Bush, which allowed Hank Paulson, Colin Powell and plenty of other public servants to dispose of their equity holdings without paying taxes: to get the tax relief, it must be deemed “reasonably necessary” for a public official to divest his shares, or a congressional committee must require the asset sale, according to section 1043 of the tax code, something which is virtually assured in the case of Tillerson.

* * *

Finally, the environmentalists will certainly be displeased with Trump’s choice, even thought Tillerson helped shift Exxon’s response to climate change when he took over as CEO in 2006. He embraced a carbon tax as the best potential policy solution and has said climate change is a global problem that warrants action. That was a break from his predecessor, Lee Raymond.

Still, Mr. Tillerson is a polarizing figure among Democrats and environmental activists. They have accused Exxon of sowing doubt about the impacts of climate change during Mr. Raymond’s tenure and say Mr. Tillerson hasn’t done enough to disclose the future impact of climate-change regulations on the company’s ability to get oil out of the ground.

  “This is certainly a good way to make clear exactly who’ll be running the government in a Trump administration—just cut out the middleman and hand it directly to the fossil-fuel industry,” said Bill McKibben, the environmental activist and founder of 350.org.

  Exxon has disputed the criticism and accused activists and Democratic attorneys general of conspiring against the company.

  The son of a local Boy Scouts administrator, Mr. Tillerson was born in Wichita Falls, Texas. He attended the University of Texas, where he studied civil engineering, was a drummer in the Longhorn band and participated in a community service-oriented fraternity.

As secretary of state, Tillerson would be fourth in line to the presidency.

No matter how US diplomacy plays out under Tillerson, however, one thing is certain: at least Mitt Romney will not be setting US foreign policy for the next four years. This particular ritual humiliation has now been duly completed…

Finally, as NBC also adds, Tillerson’s deputy secretary of state for day-to-day management of the department will be former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton.

To summarize: a cabinet run by Wall Street and big oil (with a neocon backstop), and a handful of veteran generals thrown in. The writing should be on the wall as to what comes next.


4

Posted by Bolton the ulimate (((NeoCon))) shabbos goy on Sun, 11 Dec 2016 12:00 | #

The American Conservative, “Trump Chooses Tillerson for State and Picks Bolton as His Deputy”, 10 Dec 2016:

Donald Trump finally chose Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson as nominee for Secretary of State:

  Diplomacy in the world of Donald Trump is going to be directed by the CEO of Exxon Mobil, one of the world’s largest oil companies.

  The President-elect tapped Rex Tillerson, a private sector Texan with no formal diplomatic experience, to be Secretary of State on Saturday according to NBC news.

The good news is that Trump didn’t choose Giuliani or Romney for the top job, but it is still a curious and questionable selection. The bad news is that Tillerson has no diplomatic experience, and if confirmed he would be the first Secretary of State that I know of with no experience at all in government. While he may have international business experience, it doesn’t follow that he will be suited to to the task of managing U.S. relations with the rest of the world. If Giuliani and Romney weren’t qualified for the position, it is hard to see what makes Tillerson any more qualified.

Tillerson reportedly has ties with Putin because of his background in the oil industry. Those ties might be useful in pursuing improved relations with Moscow, but they are also likely to make his confirmation much more difficult on account of the intense hostility he is sure to encounter from hard-liners in the Senate. We might guess at what his foreign policy views are on various issues, but that is all we would be doing.

The very bad news is that John Bolton is reportedly being brought on as Tillerson’s deputy:

  Tillerson will be paired with former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton as his deputy secretary of state for day-to-day management of the department, one source added.

That’s better than putting Bolton in charge, but not by much. The fact that Bolton is receiving a top job anywhere in the administration is an indictment of Trump’s judgment and a sign of just how reckless and aggressive U.S. foreign policy is likely to be in the coming years.

Bolton is the ultimate shabbos goy for Jewish Neo-Cons. Perfect if you want to try to drum up a war against Iran.


5

Posted by Kumiko Oumae on Sun, 11 Dec 2016 16:32 | #

I don’t think that we should be spilling this much typeface onto displays when it is not yet known whether all of this is another Kellyanne Conway style test.

The common pattern seems to be:

1. Float a possible candidate which is the most controversial of the people being considered, get the media worked up and excited.
2. Let a 24 hour news cycle elapse, enough for the entire world to write opinions across news websites, television and social media.
3. Conway assesses the reaction to see if key segments of the slack-jawed idiot GOP base are feeling happy or not.
4. Have Trump tantalisingly walk it all back for a moment at around 36 hours in.
5. Choose a different candidate who is a slightly more sophisticated version of the original candidate that was selected and who will cleave to the same pattern of policy preferences, while keeping the original candidate around as a key lobbyist figure, and ram it through on the evening cycle of that day when everyone is tired of the suspense already.

Given that Trump’s latest tweet is this: https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/807970490635743237

It would seem that that are at about phase 4 of the cycle now. He might still actually choose Rex Tillerson of course, but there also remains a chance that he’ll choose a different but effectively similar filthy Russian-reset style candidate such as Dana Rohrabacher, who will then be lauded by Trump’s sycophantic followers while the media flails around in weary slow-motion exhaustion to detail the background of that character, upon which the Trump snivelling social media sycophants will then scream “they are never happy no matter who he chooses!”

So I won’t bother to say anything until Trump confirms what his actual choice is.

Once he chooses, then I will bring out more venomous ‘told you so’ posts.


6

Posted by Trump confirms Tillerson as his pick on Tue, 13 Dec 2016 03:52 | #

NY Times, “Trump Picks Rex Tillerson, Exxon C.E.O., as Secretary of State”, 12 Dec 2016.


7

Posted by Loyaty to Exxon vs. Loyalty to U.S. on Wed, 21 Dec 2016 05:53 | #

NPR, “How Running ExxonMobil Did (And Didn’t) Prepare Rex Tillerson For Secretary Of State”, 20 Dec 2016:
36:33 Download

New Yorker writer Steve Coll says that though Tillerson has conducted billion-dollar international deals as an oil executive, he has no government experience.

Discussion provides insight into Exxon’s corporate culture - how it is in fact like an independent state loyal primarily to its share-holders; as it’s CEO, therefore, Tillerson has had markedly different loyalties and requirements than American patriotism.

For one matter, Exxon has invariably opposed sanctions of any kind; and with Exxon having an economy as big as many nations (about the size of South Africa), it’s corporate wish has power. Tillerson’s visit with Putin at Sochi was not a violation of sanctions, but against the spirit of the sanctions - which are a diplomatic means other than war.



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