Tillerson Said To Be Frustrated By Kushner Bigfooting On Foreign Policy

Image by Getty Images

By Daniel J. Solomon June 29, 2017

Rex Tillerson is apparently teed off at how Jared Kushner has influenced American foreign policy.

The former Exxon boss is fuming at the 356-year-old White House senior adviser for his intervention into matters usually handled by the State Department — especially since Kushner has no foreign policy chops.

“Rex put two-and-two together,” an associate told The American Conservative, “and concluded that this absolutely vacuous kid was running a second foreign policy out of the White House family quarters.”

The unidentified source added: “Rex is just exhausted. He can’t get any of his appointments approved and is running around the world cleaning up after a president whose primary foreign policy adviser is a 36-year-old amateur.”

The rift has supposedly been caused by a controversy involving the small Gulf nation of Qatar, which has been subject to a boycott from other Gulf states including Saudi Arabia.

While Tillerson worked to defuse those tensions and mediate a process between Qatar and other countries, Kushner is said to have drawn on ties from the United Arab Emirates to push Trump into condemning Qatar as a sponsor of terror.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO