President Donald Trump brushed off concerns that the State Department still has key unfilled jobs, telling Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that he’s the only one who matters.
“We don’t need all the people they want us to get,” Trump said in an interview that aired Thursday night. “Let me tell you ― the one that matters is me. I’m the only one that matters because when it comes to it, that’s what the policy is going to be.”
The president also blamed Senate Democrats for dragging out the approval process for his nominees. While some State Department job picks are waiting for confirmation, more than a dozen top positions remain vacant with no named nominee, according to a Fox News article published last month.
“Rex is in there working hard. He’s doing his best,” Trump said of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
“Will he be with you through the duration?” Ingraham asked.
“Well, we’ll see,” Trump said. “I don’t know who’s gonna be ― duration.”
Last month, NBC News reported that Tillerson called Trump “a moron” and was close to resigning over the summer. Tillerson, in an impromptu press conference after the report, didn’t personally deny calling Trump a moron, but he praised the president as “smart” and affirmed his commitment to staying in the job.
Trump called the NBC News story “phony,” but later said that if it was true, he’d beat Tillerson in an IQ test.
Trump departs on a 10-day trip to Asia on Friday.
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