Trump fires Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

[Dontrike]

Ex Exxon Exec Next Ex-Sec.

Absolute alliteration all-star, alright.

[BlackwingHecate]

Absolute alliteration all-star, alright.

It’s only alliteration if it’s consonant sounds, and only at the start.

[Breccia]

Possibly due to direct order from Trump, or possibly just to avoid being fired by tweet, the State Department has told its diplomats not to retweet Goldstein's statement about how Tillerson was fired via tweet.

In addition, as statements from government officials are considered...well, official...Goldstein's tweet was in the process of being translated into other languages, you know, because the State Department talks to other countries. That translation process has been halted.

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Even as Tillerson's departure remains unfinished business (torture), more and more news sources suggest there's an after-credits scene. This CBS News story goes over names we've already seen (McMaster, Kelly, Shulkin, etc) but also brings up another issue: the reason Trump might not have fired people so far, is the difficulty in replacing them.

This isn't about some unfilled diplomatic spots, after all. This is things like Chief of Staff. These are important spots you can't leave blank.

In 14 months, Trump has lost 20 senior staff members. This is roughly triple the rate of Obama, who didn't lose 12 people total till somewhere in the middle of Year Three and lost 39 total by the end of Year Four. Obama's four-year average was about on line with Bush, Clinton, and Reagan.

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Well let's continue with that topic: Trump just called reports of a shakeup in his administration "very exaggerated and false".

Later in the interview, he said "There will always be change. And I think you want to see change. I want to also see different ideas."

"How much later in the interview?"

It was literally the very next thing he said.

[Dontrike]

Later in the interview, he said "There will always be change. And I think you want to see change. I want to also see different ideas."

I wonder if Trump actually believes that most people believe him when he says things like this. "Wanting different ideas". Pah!

He needs to stop running the country like one of his businesses and start running the country like a successful business.