Tillerson Disagrees With Trump on Nearly Everything

“These suggest some tensions with the president-elect.”

Christy Bowe/Globe Photos via ZUMA Wire

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By the time the first day of hearings for Donald Trump’s secretary-of-state pick concluded, Rex Tillerson had expressed a range of opinions at odds with those of his future boss. As Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) noted, Tillerson’s views on Muslims, Russian aggression, Saudi Arabia, NATO, the Paris climate agreement, the Iran nuclear deal, nuclear arms, and more were notably different from Trump’s campaign statements.

“All of these to me are quite encouraging,” Coons said. “But these suggest some tensions with the president-elect.”

Asked about how he’d resolve these differences with Trump’s stated views, Tillerson said:

“One of the reasons I came to the conclusion…to say yes to President-elect Trump when he asked me to do this, is that [in] my conversations with him on the subjects we have discussed…he’s been very open and inviting of hearing my views and respectful of those views. In terms of my categorizing it as my pushing back on him, my sense is we’re going to have all the views presented [at the] table and everyone will have an opportunity to express those and make the case. And the president decides.”

Throughout the hearing, the former Exxon Mobil CEO said he had not been briefed, examined the evidence, or received proper security clearances in order to answer questions on a range of international policy issues.

Coons wasn’t the only senator to note the contrast with Trump. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) observed, “Many of these statements have been undercut by earlier statements by the president-elect.”

Earlier in the day, Shaheen asked Tillerson if he would be willing to divest from Exxon Mobil stock. Tillerson replied that he would. She noted yet another difference with Trump—this one in his approach to his holdings. “I’m sad to say, it stands in stark contrast to what Trump had to say today,” she said. “That he’s not going to divest from his vast interests around the world?.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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