President Donald Trump says he still has confidence in his secretary of state and did not intend to ‘undercut’ him when he questioned his intelligence level.
The spat came up as Trump addressed reporters before a meeting with Henry Kissinger, secretary of state to two former presidents, this morning at the White House.
‘No, I didn’t undercut anybody. I don’t believe in undercutting people,’ Trump said.
As he signaled that it was time for the press to take their leave, a journalist asked if he remains confident in Tillerson. ‘Yes,’ Trump responded.
President Donald Trump bragged that he’s smarter than Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, saying in an interview published Tuesday that if Tillerson did call him a moron, as reported, the two should ‘compare IQ tests.’
Now Trump says he still has confidence in his secretary of state and did not intend to ‘undercut’ him when he questioned his intelligence level
Trump and Tillerson are scheduled to have lunch Tuesday at the White House with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Tillerson is pictured on the White House grounds this afternoon ahead of their meeting
Trump had bragged in an interview that he’s smarter than Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
If Tillerson did call him a moron, as reported, the two should ‘compare IQ tests,’ Trump told Forbes magazine in the interview that was published on Tuesday.
He added, ‘And I can tell you who is going to win.’
Trump’s tense relationship with Tillerson burst into public view last week. An NBC News story claimed Vice President Mike Pence had to talk Tillerson out of resigning this summer, and that Tillerson had called Trump a ‘moron.
Tillerson said he never considered resigning, though he didn’t directly address the reported insult. His spokeswoman later said he never used such language.
Trump and Tillerson are scheduled to have lunch Tuesday at the White House with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
Trump has at times appeared to undercut Tillerson’s message on some of America’s most sensitive national security challenges, including Iran and North Korea. Tillerson also has publicly complained about the White House blocking him from making key appointments.
Still, last week Trump told reporters he has ‘total confidence’ in his secretary of state.
In the Forbes interview, conducted on Friday, Trump responded to criticism that he’s undermined his secretary of state through his often provocative tweets that have interfered directly with ongoing diplomatic efforts.
‘I’m not undermining,’ Trump told Forbes. ‘I think I’m actually strengthening authority.’
As for Tillerson’s reported ‘moron’ ‘comment, the president said, ‘I think it’s fake news. But if he did that, I guess we’ll have to compare IQ tests. And I can tell you who is going to win.’
The White House has repeatedly smacked down NBC’s reporting on Tillerson, with Trump repeatedly calling it ‘fake news’ on Twitter.
Trump said Tillerson ‘never threatened to resign’ and the news network would have known that if it had spoken to him about the matter before publishing its report.
‘The @NBCNews story has just been totally refuted by Sec. Tillerson and @VP Pence. It is #FakeNews. They should issue an apology to AMERICA!’ he tweeted.
He later pondered a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into news outlets like NBC that publish material he’s bashed as ‘fake news.’
‘So much of our news is just made up-FAKE!’ Trump claimed in one of his tweets.
The White House has repeatedly smacked down NBC’s reporting on Tillerson, with Trump repeatedly calling it ‘fake news’ on Twitter
At a news conference after the NBC report dropped, Tillerson slammed the allegation that he called Trump a moron as ‘petty.’ Yet, he did not refute the charge.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters during a presser of her own that Tillerson didn’t need to.
‘As the secretary of state said, this is a pretty ridiculous accusation and, frankly, I think it’s beneath the secretary of state to weigh in on every rumor out there,’ Huckabee Sanders said. ‘His spokesperson, however, did come out and clarify that the secretary of state never used those words,’ she added.
In Las Vegas, where he flew Wednesday to honor victims of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, Trump said of Tillerson’s remarks at the presser: ‘I’m very honored by his comments. It was fake news. It was a totally phony story.’