UPDATE IS BELOW, AFTER ORIGINAL DIARY…
I don’t get much of a thrill out of the ridiculous side of this regime. I think the root problems are far deeper than Trump and I think we’re still in major trouble and yet mostly distracted. But this headline popped up at The Guardian and it stunned me. I had to double check the date. Nope, still not April 1.
Rex Tillerson: 'I didn't want this job … my wife told me I'm supposed to do this'
Rex Tillerson has said he did not want to be US secretary of state and only took the job because his wife convinced him to do it.
The former ExxonMobil oil executive revealed his initial reluctance in an interview published after a controversial trip to Asia and hours before the biggest event of his two months at the state department, an international meeting on Wednesday about how to fight Islamic State (Isis).
“I didn’t want this job. I didn’t seek this job,” Tillerson told the Independent Journal Review (IJR), in an interview conducted on his official plane during the three-nation Asia trip. “My wife told me I’m supposed to do this.”
www.theguardian.com/...
In his short tenure, Tillerson has already been rattling his sabre, shutting out the media and not getting his naps in. It is hard to see (as with all +Rump’s appointees) how this person is competent for this critical position.
I don’t have much more to say about this specific situation. I don’t see how Tillerson will hang on given his amazing candor in this story. It would be nice to see another one leave the regime just to add to the narrative about the utter failure of our arrogant so called businessman +Rump and his empty claims and bankrupt morality.
I think it is vital we keep a weather eye on our long term game and opportunities to build the infrastructure we need for long term success.
UPDATE:
smarone has provided a link from Bloomberg that clears this up pretty well. In a scheme with Exxon Mobil, a plan was created to put tax deferred funds into a trust in theory to “merely” follow ethics laws when assuming the SoS position.
No wonder his wife says God wants him to be SoS. Mammon has spoken!
www.bloomberg.com/...
The exit package Exxon Mobil Corp. has agreed to pay Rex Tillerson if he’s confirmed as secretary of state is structured to preserve roughly $180 million in deferred compensation for him -- and might let him avoid an immediate federal income tax bill of as much as $72 million, according to tax specialists who have reviewed the plan.
The arrangement was designed to sever Tillerson’s ties to the global oil company he led since 2006 and allow him to comply with federal ethics law. Under the plan, Exxon would make a cash payment into an independent trust managed by Northern Trust Corp. for Tillerson. In exchange, Tillerson, 64, would give up his rights to more than 2 million restricted shares and restricted stock units that haven’t vested yet.
Ordinarily, cash payments made in lieu of unvested stock awards would trigger an immediate income-tax liability for the recipient. But in Tillerson’s case, the trustee will disburse funds to him on a schedule that mirrors the company’s long-horizon vesting schedule.
That means that even though the trust would hold all the cash from the awards, Tillerson wouldn’t receive some of the money for as long as 10 years and would pay ordinary tax as payments trickle in instead of all at once. Exxon can take a corporate income-tax deduction for the payouts, but will do so only when they’re made.