According to sources close to Donald Trump‘s transition team, the president-elect is likely to pick Rex Tillerson as his administration’s Secretary of State. Tillerson is currently the chief executive of oil and gas giant Exxon Mobil, and is known for his extensive international deal-making for the company.
Trump is famously indecisive on things like this – he was strongly considering changing his vice-presidential pick right up until the end – but sources say Trump’s closest advisors believe Tillerson is “in a different league” to the other contenders, who include former presidential candidate / extremely sad man Mitt Romney.
The current heightened paranoia around Russia‘s (unproven, but possible) interference with the U.S. election, Tillerson’s links to the nation are already getting people fired up. Under his guidance, Exxon Mobil dealt with Russia’s national energy agencies, and Tillerson himself received the country’s Order of Friendship medal.
People are reacting quite strongly to that.
Vladimir Putin gave Rex Tillerson a medal. Now Donald Trump is set to make him US Secretary of State. Brace yourself. pic.twitter.com/DJ3vDmgkKg
— Henry Foy (@HenryJFoy) December 10, 2016
We’ll see. Tillerson has no former political experience – which puts him in line with Trump’s mission of ‘draining the swamp’ – but an oil executive in charge of America’s top diplomatic arm will be interesting regardless.
The final decision is expected to be announced early next week.
Source: NBC.
Photo: Getty Images.
