Trump set to pick Tillerson as secretary of state

A file photo of Rex Tillerson shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

ANALYSIS: Following the CIA’s bombshell assessment that Russia intervened in the US election to help Donald Trump, it has emerged that the president-elect is due to appoint a secretary of state with close ties to Vladimir Putin.
Rex Tillerson, chief executive of the oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp., is the pick, according to NBC News, and his nomination will be made official by Trump next week.
NBC News also reported that Trump is set to nominate former UN ambassador and hawkish foreign policy figure John Bolton as Tillerson’s deputy. According to Reuters, Trump and Tillerson met for the second time this week on Saturday morning.

From Giuliani to Tillerson
The Tillerson pick follows what has been one of the most drama-ridden, fervent and Hollywood-like processes to pick a secretary of state in the history of US administration transitions. Trump wanted to bring media attention and fuel endless speculation around the exercise, commentators say. And he certainly did.
“Most of it was a charade, a game show, and he knew or had a pretty good idea of who he wanted but instead opted to have a good show,” said Thomas Wright, a fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
The search for the secretary of state spanned four weeks with Trump polling friends, dinner guests and advisers over the pick. The president-elect has also met with over 12 names floated for the position, and whose policy leanings ranged from the hawkish right, as is the case with Bolton, to the far left represented by Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who met Trump last month.
Wright told Arab News that the meetings were mostly for “show” and an optics play by Trump. “I don’t see how you could consider seriously that contradictory pool of candidates, between a Russia hawk like (former governor of Massachusetts) Mitt Romney, and someone who has close relationship with Putin, like Rex Tillerson,” he said.
The two contenders left, Tillerson and Romney, followed a wild run of headlines declaring early on the Trump loyalists Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich as top choices, before moving to Bolton, Sen. Bob Corker, Dana Rohrabacher, David Petraeus and Mitt Romney. Trump himself enjoyed teasing the media and playing the expectations game, according to the New York Times, and he is yet to make any decision public.

Tillerson: An unconventional pick
With Trump settling on Tillerson, a Texan oil man running a company with operations in six continents, it is a departure from the political portfolio and foreign policy experience that came with former US secretaries of state. He made this decision because “Tillerson is more aligned with Trump’s views than most of the other contenders,” explained Wright.
Tillerson’s business background, his close knowledge of Russian President Vladimir Putin — whom he knew from the Boris Yeltsin days, according to The Wall Street Journal — and ability to negotiate a deal with Russia to give Exxon access to Arctic resources, made him appealing to Trump. Even though his estimated $300 billion deal with Putin was blocked by new US sanctions following Russia’s actions in Ukraine, Tillerson was in 2013 awarded the Order of Friendship by Putin and has visited him in his home in Sochi. The 64-year-old businessman does not believe in sanctions, and has done business in areas in the Middle East like Iraqi Kurdistan and Yemen. But unlike Trump, Tillerson is a staunch conservative, strong proponent of free trade, and while he has fundraised money for former Republican candidate Mitt Romney, he has not done so for Trump.
The appointment of Tillerson is “made with an idea of partnership with Russia in mind,” said Wright. He adds that “the intention is to have closer (relations) with Putin through someone who knows him well and can negotiate one-on-one with him.” This could lead to an easing of sanctions on Russia, and suggests the potential of bilateral deals on Syria or other issues between Washington and Moscow. A move toward “closer cooperation” if Tillerson were to be nominated and confirmed by the Senate is evident in Wright’s opinion.
However, nominating a US business leader who is close to Putin will, said Wright, “reinforce the anxiety in Europe about Trump,” after his campaign pledges to review NATO commitments and possibly condition military support to those states, some of which are being threatened by Russia. The “question about this becomes about the US bureaucracy and whether Congress and the Defense Department can achieve some balance and become guardians of the traditional American policy,” Wright said.
By picking Tillerson, Trump is going for “someone who will represent his ‘America First’ worldview,” Wright said. It is also a choice that won’t upset Trump’s supporters (unlike Romney), is a familiar face to the conservative establishment, and unlike some of Trump’s loyalists (Rudy Giuliani or Bolton), Tillerson has a chance at getting a Senate confirmation.