“A DIPLOMAT that happens to be able to drill oil.” That is how Reince Priebus, Donald Trump’s incoming chief of staff, described Rex Tillerson, the boss of ExxonMobil, who was nominated this week as America’s next secretary of state. In fact, Mr Tillerson, 64, is an oil driller through and through, has spent 41 years furthering the ambitions of one of the world’s largest companies, and has sometimes sidelined the American government because he felt ExxonMobil was better able to look after world affairs itself.
Yet Mr Tillerson also has a reputation for dependability and small-town Texan values that has enabled him to stand up to, and win respect from, some notoriously slippery world leaders. Making someone with no experience of government service secretary of state is a risk. But unusual is better than incompetent. Depending on what his confirmation hearings reveal about his views on Russia when not serving Exxon’s shareholders, and assuming he severs his financial ties to the company, Mr Tillerson could be one of just two or three members of Mr Trump’s cabinet whom it is possible to see serving in a normal administration.
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