Tobin Harshaw, Columnist

The Humbling of Rex Tillerson

A Q&A with Steve Coll, author of "Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power," on the secretary of state's glorious past and dismal present.

July 1, 2017 at 12:00 PM UTC

By Tobin Harshaw

Tobin Harshaw is a Bloomberg Opinion senior editor and columnist on national security and military affairs. Previously, he was deputy editor at the op-ed page of the New York Times and the newspaper’s letters editor.

Oil and water.
Photographer: Luke Sharrett

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It was inevitable that there was going to be a fair amount of chaos in the early days of the Donald Trump administration. The president is a political neophyte, he surrounded himself with a small clique of advisers who are relatively new to politics themselves, his executive experience comes from running a relatively small private company and, as his tweets show, he is an impulsive guy.

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