WASHINGTON – When US President Donald Trump launches into one of histweetstorms it sometimes seems like the diplomatic world is gasping inunison — but not Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Many foreign policy professionals have set up alerts so their phones buzzin their pockets whenever the commander-in-chief insults a foreign leaderor issues a vague threat of war.
But not Tillerson, Washington´s chief diplomat and arguably the man who hasthe toughest job clearing the air after Trump sets off another diplomaticincident with a social media rant.
Tillerson is not on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. When Trump sends atweet on world affairs a State Department aide prints it and brings it tothe secretary for later perusal.
At least, that is how he explained things to his friend and predecessorCondoleezza Rice on Wednesday in a chat after a speech at StanfordUniversity in California.
Rice asked Tillerson a question he gets asked all the time: how can hehandle US foreign policy with Trump constantly stirring the pot with hisundiplomatic tweets?
Tillerson´s reply went into more detail than usual — although he againinsisted that he has no problem with Trump´s remarks and sees them as anopportunity to communicate his vision.
“He´s world class in social media, and I´m not,” 65-year-old former oilmanTillerson admitted. “I have no social media account, I´ve never had any andI don´t intend to have any.”
“It is a great tool when it is used well. The president has used it at agreat effect by by-passing the traditional means of communicating,” he toldthe assembled policy experts.
“And he absolutely thrives with his ability to instantly communicate notjust to the American people but to our friends and allies or to ouradversaries in the entire world.”
This much has been said before, but surely Tillerson receives a warningbefore Trump abruptly cancels a planned trip to London or threatens to pullout of the NAFTA trade pact?
The answer is not, apparently. Tillerson likes it that way.
“I don´t know when he´s going to do that, because that is just the way thepresident operates,” he said.
“The challenge is just getting caught up because I don´t even have aTwitter account to follow what he´s tweeting. My staff usually has to printhis tweets out and hand them to me.”
“I´ve actually concluded that´s not a bad system.”´How do we use that?’
Tillerson explained that it might be anything up to an hour post tweet thathe finds out what Trump has been saying, and that means he can gaugeofficial reaction before responding.
“I already have the early reactions to that and it allows me to begin tothink about: ´How do we take that?´,” he said.
“OK, this is information. We know what our objectives are and he didn´tchange any of them. This is just the way he wants to communicate on asubject, how do we take that and use it?”
Tillerson remains sanguine about Trump´s exotic online monologue, whichsome critics fear could alienate US allies, despite having fallen foul ofit more than once himself.
In October last year, Tillerson met senior Chinese leaders in Beijing andafterwards told reporters that he had back channel communications open withKim Jong-Un´s North Korea.
When Tillerson arrived back in Washington he discovered — presumably onbeing handed a print out — that Trump had disavowed his efforts to resolvethe nuclear stand-off.
“I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wastinghis time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man,” Trump had tweeted.
“Save your energy Rex, we´ll do what needs to be done!” – AFP