In any other year, the secretary of state would hold a press conference this week to mark the State Department’s annual Human Rights Report, which was released Friday. If, for some reason, the secretary could not attend the event, he or she might send another high-ranking official or deputy to observe the release of the document, which details human rights advances and abuses around the world. But these are not ordinary times. Former ExxonMobil C.E.O. Rex Tillerson, who was confirmed to lead the State Department last month, did not hold any press conference at all. Instead, the department briefed reporters over the phone, providing only a “senior administration official” on background. 
 
 The decision to skip the usual pomp and circumstance of the report’s unveiling did not go unnoticed in Washington. Still, it was not surprising, given the way the State Department has been diminished by the consolidation of power within the White House. Donald Trump and his small circle of loyalists have taken over many of the roles usually played by top diplomats, leaving Foggy Bottom without much to do. Dozens of key posts and managerial positions remain unfilled. As Julia Ioffe reported for The Atlantic this week, the Harry S. Truman building, usually the busy, beating heart of the nation’s foreign policy establishment, has grown idle and aimless. The cafeteria is filled with people taking long lunches and extended coffee breaks. Those who used to work into the night are now leaving at five P.M. One staffer told Ioffe that where she used to get 200 e-mails each day, she now gets about two dozen. 
 
 This week, reports emerged that the president intends to present a budget that would slash the State Department budget by at least 37 percent, likely necessitating mass layoffs among the agency’s nearly 70,000 staff. 
 
 While the president sharpens his axe, Tillerson has been largely absent, mostly voiceless, and effectively neutered in his new job. Since he was sworn in earlier this year, the longtime Exxon executive has made only a single speech—the one welcoming his staff at State headquarters—and has offered only one short readout about his first month on the job. By comparison, The Washington Post notes, John Kerry had given two speeches and 15 readouts by the end of his first month in office. Tillerson’s State Department, meanwhile, hasn’t even held a daily press briefing—a tradition the agency has upheld since the 1950s. (It has said it will start back up with them on Monday, nearly halfway through Trump’s first 100 days in office.) 
 
 That’s not to say that Tillerson hasn’t been working. As I reported earlier this week, Tillerson has been involved in key meetings with foreign leaders, including a dinner with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a trip to Mexico last week to meet with the country’s highest-ranking officials during a particularly tense time between the two nations. But he has also repeatedly been left out of key decisions and meetings. He was absent when Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau visited Washington. And, according to Politico, he hadn’t known that the White House was backing away from its support of a two-state solution in the Middle East until Trump and Netanyahu briefed the media in a press conference from the East Room. While Trump was walking back decades of U.S. foreign policy, Tillerson was on a plane to meet with G20 leaders in Germany. 
 
 Tillerson, unlike his predecessors of state, also appears to have more than one boss. As sources told me, Tillerson has been mitigated in part by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, who has become something of a mini secretary of state within the White House and the primary point of contact for a number of foreign leaders, including Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto and Netanyahu. “People are coming to [Jared and Ivanka Trump] because they know at the end of the day, they’ve been there for 20 years before and they’ll be there for 20 years after,” one source familiar with the situation told me, explaining that Kushner’s stability within Trump’s orbit is seen as a unique asset in administration that is notoriously unpredictable. Tillerson, the source told me, checks in with Kushner before meeting with the president, because he knows Trump will ask his son-in-law for his opinion anyway. The two have worked together on a number of initiatives, including planning Tillerson’s trip to Mexico last week, presenting the play-by-play to Trump together as a team. Before the unceremonious publication of State’s Human Rights Report, Kushner's wife, Ivanka, called for her own meeting at the White House on the issue. 
 
 Tillerson’s department may feel cut off and listless as a result, but there may be an upside for the secretary himself. The growing scandal surrounding Trumpworld’s connections to Russia has enveloped an increasing number of Trump associates. First there was former Lieutenant General Mike Flynn, who resigned after it became clear that he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. This week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from a federal investigation into Russia’s campaign to tip the outcome of the 2016 presidential race when it became clear that he, too, had not been entirely forthcoming about his own interactions with Kislyak in the months leading up to the election. Even Kushner, who has managed to steer clear of most West Wing scandals so far, sat down with Flynn and Kislyak in December, according to The New York Times, making it harder to defend Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s claim that the White House did not know that Flynn had met with the ambassador. 
 
 Of all the various reports tying members of Trump’s orbit to the Kremlin, it is a wonder that few in Washington are talking about Tillerson. The former oil executive spent years doing business in Russia, and in 2013 was personally awarded the Order of Friendship by Vladimir Putin for negotiating a $500 billion deal with Rosneft, Russia’s largest, and state-controlled, oil company. When the imposition of sanctions derailed the plan the following year, ExxonMobil reportedly lobbied the U.S. government to have them removed. (During his Senate confirmation hearing, Tillerson said he didn’t know whether his company had lobbied for or against the sanctions.) Republican Senators Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and Marco Rubio all expressed concerns with his close ties to Russia during the process, though all three eventually decided to support his nomination. 
 
 Yet Tillerson has remained unburdened by the stench of scandal hanging over the White House. While the Russian intrigues swirling around the president continues to ensnare more members of his administration, the one man who knows Putin best has managed to stay off the radar by remaining off the grid. It may just be that his diminished role role might be what allows him to walk away the least scathed in the end. ||||| The State Department resumes its formal press briefing this week — an event that offers Secretary of State Rex Tillerson an ideal setting to appear before the public, assert to the world that America remains a diplomatic force and reassure his jittery employees that their work matters to the new administration. 
 
 But Tillerson is not likely to show up, according to acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner. 
 
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 America’s chief diplomat so far appears allergic to the spotlight. His aloof approach to his job is eroding confidence in him at the State Department, multiple sources told POLITICO, where staffers are upset about President Donald Trump’s mixed foreign policy messages and his plans to significantly cut the agency’s budget. 
 
 “It’s making me anxious,” said one State Department official who, like most others serving, requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. 
 
 Tillerson’s relative silence has been further compounded by the fact that the State Department’s traditional daily press briefing has been on hiatus since Trump took office. It was supposed to resume Monday, but it was postponed until Tuesday because of developments involving a newly revised executive order on immigration issued by Trump. 
 
 The briefing is monitored carefully by other governments seeking a sense of U.S. foreign policy priorities. The long silence has irritated American diplomats who have watched other foreign ministry spokesmen, including those representing U.S. rivals such as Russia, try to seize control of narratives without State being able to respond. 
 
 Early indications are that the format of the briefing will change in notable ways during Tillerson's tenure. Toner confirmed he’ll handle the briefings for the time being. For the first week, at least, reporters will be briefed Monday through Thursday, but on two of those days the session will be done via telephone instead of the traditional in-person gathering. 
 
 In the past, the briefing has been held every business day, with some exceptions, and the secretary of state has used it to make an occasional appearance to talk to reporters. 
 
 Toner is a career member of the Foreign Service with plenty of experience dealing with reporters. But he'll face an unusually tough task explaining the Trump administration's foreign policy given the president's shifting positions on everything from NATO to how the U.S. should deal with Russia. 
 
 The department spokesman’s role is expected to eventually go to a political appointee. Bloomberg News reported over the weekend that Fox News anchor Heather Nauert has been selected for the job. State officials did not respond when asked to confirm the story. 
 
 Last week, the Trump administration unveiled a budget proposal that it said would boost defense spending by $54 billion while cutting other federal agencies. A source familiar with the issue told POLITICO the plans included a 37 percent cut to the combined budget of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development. 
 
 Many State staffers had expected a restructuring, especially as word filtered out that Trump aides want the department to focus more on counterterrorism and less on softer subjects. In generally well-received remarks to State Department employees after he was confirmed, Tillerson himself predicted there would be changes, saying "we cannot sustain ineffective traditions over optimal outcomes.” 
 
 But the size of the proposed budget reductions has been a gut punch, and some fear the reorganization could be more extensive than they’d imagined. 
 
 The Associated Press reported that Tillerson has agreed in principle to the cuts, but wants to spread them out over three years to soften the impact, which nonetheless would still be dramatic. State Department press aides sidestepped questions about Tillerson’s views on the proposed cuts. 
 
 Tillerson may be playing a long game. The former CEO of ExxonMobil has little diplomatic experience and is still learning about the composition of a department with more than 75,000 employees across the world. He's also been in the job for only a few weeks. He also knows that both Republicans and Democrats in Congress will likely push back on Trump’s proposed budget cuts, whether or not he speaks up. 
 
 But to some, Tillerson's outward silence implies consent. Amid the confusion and rumors, some State staffers say they wish Tillerson would hold a town hall or similar forum simply to clarify things. “It’s an outrageous cut,” one U.S. diplomat said. “It doesn’t speak to [Tillerson’s] having much heft within the administration.” 
 
 Some say that Tillerson's behind the scenes approach doesn’t necessarily indicate a lack of influence. It’s more in line with how he dealt with issues while at ExxonMobil. Considering how erratic the president himself can be on certain foreign policy topics, Tillerson may deem it safer not to say things in public that might end up contradicting his boss and further confusing foreign capitals carefully watching for infighting in the administration. 
 
 “I’m rooting for him,” one State Department official said of Tillerson, noting that the people who remain the most zen about the situation are those who have served in multiple administrations. “Colleagues who have briefed him are impressed. They find him thoughtful, inquisitive and professional,” the official added. 
 
 State sources say, however, that career staffers seem to have a shrinking amount of access to the secretary. Seventh-floor offices near Tillerson that used to belong to career employees — including that of the State Department counselor, a position Tillerson may not fill — have been emptied and retrofitted with cubicles expected to go to political appointees. 
 
 So far, it appears the White House has tremendous sway over who surrounds Tillerson. Trump vetoed Tillerson’s choice for deputy secretary of state, former George W. Bush administration official Elliott Abrams, because of his past criticism of the president. 
 
 According to State’s press division, Tillerson is making his presence felt behind the scenes. He “has had 32 separate phone conversations with representatives of various countries, 15 in-person meetings with foreign interlocutors here in the United States, as well as calls and meetings with U.S. government personnel, showing a deep commitment to coordinating with the White House and other federal agencies and obtaining a diversity of perspectives on issues of public concern,” a spokesman said. The department also issues the occasional comment under Tillerson’s name, including congratulations to other countries on their national days. 
 
 When Tillerson does speak publicly, he usually sticks to a script and ignores questions. On Thursday, during an appearance alongside Yukiya Amano, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Tillerson smiled but said nothing as NBC’s Andrea Mitchell lobbed several questions at him before being escorted out of the room, a moment caught on a widely circulated video. 
 
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 Tillerson’s decision not to participate in Friday’s roll-out of the department’s annual Human Rights Report was another high-profile opportunity lost, some critics said. It broke with a long-standing tradition of secretaries of state unveiling the report during an on-camera press conference, and it vexed staffers and human rights activists who considered it an unnecessary snub of one of the most high-profile documents produced by State. 
 
 A State official told POLITICO in February that Tillerson has asked others at the department for guidance on how to deal with the media, an indication he was concerned about his image. Department spokesmen ignored repeated initial requests for comment on the February account. When asked again about the matter on Saturday, a spokesman said, “The secretary has not asked for any recommendations,” but did not elaborate or clarify further. 
 
 Critics of Tillerson's quiet approach argue that being America’s chief diplomat requires literally speaking up now and then. 
 
 “He needs to communicate his vision, which has been sorely lacking both within the building and publicly,” said Dan Feldman, who served as the State Department’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan during the presidency of Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. “And he needs to be open to the voices of experience, rather than surrounding himself primarily with political advisers.” ||||| Washington (CNN) Talk of a potential "Rexit" at Foggy Bottom, new tests for President Trump on immigration, tax reform and media relations and a big challenge for the nation's oldest civil rights organization -- it's all part of our Inside Politics Forecast. 
 
 1) A chill across the executive branch -- and new rumblings from State Department 
 
 There was a decided chill across the executive branch as last week came to a close after a tumultuous series of events that rattled worker bees and caught the attention of Cabinet secretaries. 
 
 A large part of that dynamic was the result of the White House staff shakeup -- which saw President Trump overruling top advisers to hire Anthony Scaramucci as communications director, and the resignation of press secretary Sean Spicer. 
 
 Bigger, though, were the continuing conversations about The New York Times interview in which Trump sharply criticized his attorney general and longtime supporter -- Jeff Sessions -- saying it was "unfair to the President" that Sessions recused himself from any decisions related to the Russia election meddling investigation. 
 
 Among those who viewed the President's public rebuke of Sessions as unprofessional, according to several sources, is Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon-Mobil CEO. 
 
 Tillerson has a growing list of differences with the White House, including a new debate over Iran policy and personnel. His frustration is hardly a secret and it has spilled out publicly at times. But friends sense a change of late. 
 
 For weeks, conversations with Tillerson friends outside of Washington have left the impression that he, despite his frustrations, was determined to stay on the job at least through the end of the year. That would allow time to continue efforts to reorganize the State Department and would mean he could claim to have put in a year as America's top diplomat. 
 
 But two sources who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity over the weekend said they would not be surprised if there was a "Rexit" from Foggy Bottom sooner that that. 
 
 Both of these sources are familiar with Tillerson conversations with friends outside Washington. Both said there was a noticeable increase in the secretary's frustration and his doubts that the tug-of-war with the White House would subside anytime soon. They also acknowledged it could have been venting after a tough week, a suggestion several DC-based sources made when asked if they saw evidence Tillerson was looking for an exit strategy. 
 
 2) Tax reform next? White House nervous as it eyes clock 
 
 Trump pushed again Saturday for GOP senators to resolve their differences and settle on an Obamacare repeal and replace package. The White House wants a win, and worries failure will further damage the President's political standing. 
 
 Some top Trump aides are worried about the calendar --- believing all this time spent on health care, without success, might have a domino effect on another top White House priority. 
 
 Julie Hirshfeld Davis of The New York Times detailed the anxiety over finding a path toward tax reform. 
 
 "What we're seeing, what we're hearing, from these meetings that have been going on behind the scenes with Steven Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, Gary Cohn, the National Economic Council director and the top congressional leaders on the Republican side is that they're sort of starting to think about potentially trimming their sales and not doing a big massive tax reform but instead a tax cut," Davis said. "There is a lot of uncertainty about whether they're even going to be able to get that this year." 
 
 JUST WATCHED Why tax reform is so hard Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Why tax reform is so hard 02:05 
 
 3) A reset -- with the media? 
 
 New White House communications chief, Antony Scaramucci, is a feisty defender of President Trump 
 
 But even as he echoes the President in tossing around the "Fake News" label, he also says he is looking to rebalance the White House relationship with traditional or mainstream media outlets. 
 
 The timing, Michael Shear of The New York Times suggests, could at least present a genuine opportunity. 
 
 "There could be an opportunity for a press reboot over some of the issues that the press corps has been arguing with the White House for: access to the President, press conferences, on-camera briefings," Shear said. 
 
 "There is a new White House Correspondents' Association president who is coming in, as it happens, at exactly the same time that we have a new communications director and head of the communications shop." 
 
 The moral of that story? It'll be a wait-and-see moment for White House reporters. 
 
 JUST WATCHED Scaramucci: Trump unsure of Russia meddling Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Scaramucci: Trump unsure of Russia meddling 01:34 
 
 4) DREAM Act push -- lost cause or a chance for clarity? 
 
 Trump has sent mixed signals about policy toward so-called Dreamers -- undocumented workers who came to the United States illegally but at an age when they were too young to be responsible for that decision. 
 
 During the campaign, he at times promised to reverse Obama administration protections extended to them. He has not done so as President, and he has on several occasions discussed how difficult it is for him to square his tougher views on immigration with understanding and compassion for a group that is otherwise law-abiding and did not make a decision to break the law. 
 
 A new push in Congress could offer a chance to bring some clarity to the Dreamer question. The Atlantic's Molly Ball discussed the possibility of a revised version of the so-called DREAM Act, and its bipartisan sponsors: Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. 
 
 "It might seem like a strange time to be doing that. But this administration has sent very conflicting signals about DACA," Ball said. 
 
 "There are some state attorneys general that have imposed a deadline on the administration to basically tell them whether this is going to go or stay. They have been issuing work permits. And so Lindsey Graham at the press conference introducing this said, you know, President Trump, you can really sort of act against type, you can solve this problem." 
 
 5) NAACP meets this week -- no presidential visit -- but a Democratic parade 
 
 The nation's oldest civil rights organization -- the NAACP -- holds its annual meeting this week amid a host of questions about how to navigate American politics and policy in the Trump years. 
 
 Trump declined an invitation to attend Several Democrats thinking about the 2020 presidential campaign are scheduled to speak. CNN's Nia-Malika Henderson shared her reporting on how this legacy organization is trying to modernize its approach. 
 
 "The question there, how does this very old, the oldest civil rights organization in the country, reboot and re-imagine themselves in the Trump era and the era of Black Lives Matter? And in the era of resistance? They invited Donald Trump. He said 'no,' he wasn't going to come," Henderson said. 
 
 "Eric Holder will be there. He'll be talking about gerrymandering -- something that's very important to Democrats particularly. Also, it's being looked at as something of a 2020 cattle call. Also in attendance, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders, of course, struggled a bit with getting African-American support when he ran last go around. So we'll see what those folks have to offer." ||||| Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s frustrations with the White House have been building for months. Last Friday, they exploded. 
 
 The normally laconic Texan unloaded on Johnny DeStefano, the head of the presidential personnel office, for torpedoing proposed nominees to senior State Department posts and for questioning his judgment. 
 
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 Tillerson also complained that the White House was leaking damaging information about him to the news media, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Above all, he made clear that he did not want DeStefano’s office to “have any role in staffing” and “expressed frustration that anybody would know better” than he about who should work in his department — particularly after the president had promised him autonomy to make his own decisions and hires, according to a senior White House aide familiar with the conversation. 
 
 The episode stunned other White House officials gathered in chief of staff Reince Priebus’ office, leaving them silent as Tillerson raised his voice. In the room with Tillerson and DeStefano were Priebus, top Trump aide Jared Kushner and Margaret Peterlin, the secretary of state’s chief of staff. 
 
 The encounter, described by four people familiar with what happened, was so explosive that Kushner approached Peterlin afterward and told her that Tillerson’s outburst was completely unprofessional, according to two of the people familiar with the exchange, and told her that they needed to work out a solution. 
 
 “Colleagues are capable of frank exchanges,” said R.C. Hammond, a State Department spokesman, when asked about the disagreement. “Evaluating nominees did get off to a slow start, but it is now moving along at a pretty good clip.” 
 
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 It was the loudest manifestation yet of how frustrated Tillerson is in his new role. He has complained about White House attempts to push personnel on him; about the president’s tweets; and about the work conditions in a West Wing where he sometimes finds loyalty and competence hard to come by. Above all, the former ExxonMobil CEO, accustomed to having the final word on both personnel and policy in his corporate life, has balked at taking orders from political aides younger and less experienced than he is. 
 
 Disputes between the White House and a Cabinet secretary, particularly over personnel, aren't unusual. The Obama White House told Hillary Clinton that her friend Sidney Blumenthal couldn’t join her at the State Department. Other secretaries in Trump’s Cabinet have also clashed with DeStefano, who has a difficult job balancing White House requests, political considerations and headstrong Cabinet secretaries, many with executive experience. 
 
 “It’s very common that there would be some tensions and some tussles between the White House and departments or agencies about senior personnel decisions,” said Matthew Waxman, a senior official in the State Department and National Security Council under President George W. Bush. “It’s just very abnormal that these issues wouldn’t be worked out more quickly.” 
 
 Waxman, now a professor at Columbia University, said the fights are likely harder for a Cabinet secretary like Tillerson, who is accustomed to supreme control as a CEO. “But we have a system of government where political appointments run very, very deep,” he said. “It’s the way the system works. The White House has the final say.” 
 
 Tillerson’s frustration with White House meddling began early and has been a persistent issue. “He went into this with a very negative attitude towards the White House,” said a former senior State Department official familiar with his thinking, who recounted that during the transition, Tillerson opposed a candidate proposed by Trump’s team simply on the grounds that Trump’s team was proposing him. 
 
 He has sometimes conducted talks with potential job candidates without telling the White House, said one person familiar with his actions. Tillerson has told senior officials that Trump promised him autonomy, and that he wanted it, according to people who have spoken to him. 
 
 “Rex is a 65-year-old guy who worked his way up from the bottom at Exxon, and he chafes at the idea of taking orders from a 38-year-old political operative,” said a former transition aide who worked closely with Tillerson. 
 
 DeStefano worked for years as a senior adviser to former House Speaker John Boehner before he joined the Trump administration, where he has struggled to fill thousands of jobs across the government, though the pace has quickened in recent weeks. 
 
 White House spokesman Michael Short blamed some of the staffing delays on “obstruction” from Senate Democrats and said that many diplomatic positions need careful vetting. 
 
 “The meeting was productive and there was consensus on the topic of staffing, which is moving forward more quickly,” Short added. 
 
 Where Tillerson is concerned, the frustration goes both ways. Many of his proposed nominees have been rejected by DeStefano’s Office of Presidential Personnel either because they are Democrats or because they are Republicans who were critical of Trump during the campaign. Though Brian Hook, the State Department’s director of policy planning, told associates several weeks ago that the department had several people in the pipeline, few have been announced since, and the White House continues to resist Tillerson’s choices. 
 
 He’s also faced resistance to leaning on civil servants. Tillerson has expressed his desire to nominate Susan Thornton, a career foreign service officer now serving as the acting assistant secretary in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, to take over the job in an official capacity — a move White House staffers have resisted, saying they want a political person in the role. 
 
 “If the secretary is putting forward a nominee such as Susan, he is doing it because he believes she's the most qualified and best fit for the position,” said Tillerson spokesman Hammond. “In this particular case, he has the experience of working with her, since she has been on the job since February. That includes a trip to Beijing, a visit from the Chinese president to Mar-a-Lago, and the first of a series of four dialogues.” 
 
 The secretary has additionally clashed with the White House over ambassadors, according to several people familiar with the conversations, and some of the conversations are ongoing. 
 
 Tillerson has also drawn criticism for isolating himself — with the help of Peterlin, his chief of staff — in his office on the State Department’s seventh floor and for excluding many career diplomats from the policymaking process. That has frustrated the White House because even the president’s senior aides have had difficulty reaching him at times. 
 
 His leadership of the State Department seems a vast departure from his stewardship of Exxon, where he was considered a kinder, gentler executive than his predecessor, the combative and bombastic Lee Raymond. Asked about how to lead a large organization during a time of crisis, he told students at his alma mater, the University of Texas, early last year: “You do have to communicate in times like this and you have to be visible.” ||||| poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201710/426/1155968404_5597819166001_5597786184001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Tillerson's future still hazy despite Trump oath The secretary of state's denial of a resignation report doesn't dispel the image of a man unhappy and ill at ease with the president he serves. 
 
 For most of his eight months on the job, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has endured rumors that he might soon quit it. On Wednesday, he finally fought back. 
 
 Within hours of an NBC News report that he had nearly resigned this summer after allegedly calling President Donald Trump a “moron,” Tillerson held a news conference to insist that he has “never considered” leaving his post. 
 
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 The original report sent Trump into a fury this morning, a White House official said, and Tillerson moved with corporate efficiency to tamp it down. Cable networks interrupted programming for his remarks, the highest-profile public appearance to date by the former ExxonMobil CEO, who has played a surprisingly quiet — and at times awkward — role in Trump’s Cabinet. 
 
 While Trump was expressing “total confidence” in Tillerson by midafternoon, the episode further complicated perhaps the most fraught relationship between a president and a secretary of state ever seen. It also comes at a precarious moment for Trump’s foreign policy team as it navigates the twin diplomatic challenges of the Iran nuclear deal and North Korea’s atomic program. 
 
 Even as the White House sought to paper over any rift, with Trump lashing out at what he called “fake news” reports on the alleged July episode, Tillerson’s admirers in the foreign policy establishment rose to his defense. 
 
 “I think Secretary Tillerson, [Defense Secretary James] Mattis and chief of staff [John] Kelly are those people that help separate our country from chaos,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters at the Capitol on Wednesday. 
 
 But nothing about Wednesday’s events will dispel the image of Tillerson as a man unhappy and ill at ease with the president he serves — both in substance and in style. 
 
 In many ways, Tillerson embodies the moderate Republican establishment against which Trump campaigned. He was recommended for the job by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, friends of his and avatars of their party’s foreign policy machine. Where Trump is a bombastic media-driven New Yorker who speaks in superlatives, Tillerson is a soft-spoken Texan who keeps the media at arm’s length. 
 
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 And where Tillerson, a trained engineer, grew accustomed in his long ExxonMobil tenure to corporate efficiency, chain of command and running his own show, he has found himself dealing — to his great frustration, associates say — with relatively young and inexperienced White House officials in an atmosphere of constant chaos. 
 
 Tillerson was also unhappy with Trump’s handling of a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that turned violent this summer, from which Tillerson conspicuously distanced himself. The president subsequently expressed frustration that Tillerson had not displayed more loyalty, a State Department spokesman told NBC News. 
 
 On policy, Tillerson and Trump have repeatedly and publicly clashed: Tillerson opposed Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord and has tried to moderate his views on the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump despises but Tillerson believes the U.S. must honor. After Gulf Arab states in June imposed an embargo on their neighbor Qatar, which they say harbors terrorists and aids Iran, Trump openly contradicted Tillerson’s public defense of Qatar. 
 
 Tillerson tried to wave away those differences on Wednesday. “Let me tell you what I have learned about this president, whom I did not know before taking this office: He loves his country. He puts Americans and America first,” he told reporters. “He’s smart. He demands results wherever he goes, and he holds those around him accountable for whether they’ve done the job he’s asked them to do.” 
 
 But many veteran foreign policy insiders were unmoved by the show of allegiance. 
 
 Asked about Tillerson’s performance, Eliot Cohen, a former counselor to Rice’s State Department and one of the president’s harshest Republican critics, called it “pathetic, servile and, above all, unconvincing.” 
 
 Others doubted the sincerity of his denial that he has considered stepping into a life of retirement, as he had originally planned before Trump called last winter. 
 
 “He wanted to make it a year, and that would take him into early February. Whether that happens now is anybody’s guess,” said one source who knows Tillerson and is familiar with his conversations with friends. Two other State Department officials said they considered his reassurances about staying in the job a further sign that he may soon leave. 
 
 Tillerson was responding to an NBC report that he had disparaged Trump after a July meeting at the Pentagon with members of the president’s national security team. Citing multiple unnamed sources, the network reported that the secretary of state was furious over Trump’s controversially political speech at a Boy Scouts of America jamboree and remained in his job only after discussions with Vice President Mike Pence and other administration officials. 
 
 Notably absent from Tillerson’s remarks was a flat denial that he had called the president of the United States a “moron.” 
 
 “We don’t deal with that kind of petty nonsense,” he said when asked about the NBC report. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters soon after that Tillerson “does not use that kind of language. … He did not say that.” She added that Tillerson and Trump spoke Wednesday after the diplomat’s news conference. 
 
 “I’m very honored by his comments. … Total confidence in Rex. I have total confidence,” Trump said in Las Vegas on Wednesday. Of the NBC report, Trump added: “It was fake news. It was a totally phony story.” 
 
 Tillerson did insist that Pence “never had to persuade me to remain as secretary of state, because I have never considered leaving this post.” 
 
 “Tillerson is laser focused on three missions: advising, along with the rest of the team, his president; executing American policy and transforming the State Department so it’s a better instrument of American statecraft,” said James Carafano, a foreign policy and defense expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation who advised the Trump transition. 
 
 Carafano and other Tillerson allies cast the former Boy Scouts executive as a Washington outsider who holds the capital’s parlor games in contempt and tries to remain focused on public service and the national interest. 
 
 “He has time for little else, including engaging with media and the constant swirl of Washington gossip. … I don’t think he is a quitter and think the evidence is he is a valued and effective member of the president’s team,” Carafano added. 
 
 White House sources agreed, saying they never believed Tillerson was on the brink of resignation — or a “Rexit,” as some foreign policy wags have taken to calling it. 
 
 Talk of Tillerson’s standing had already reached a fever pitch in Washington after Trump tweeted on Sunday that Tillerson “is wasting his time trying to negotiate” a diplomatic solution to the U.S. standoff with North Korea over the Asian dictatorship’s nuclear and missile programs. 
 
 The message was particularly painful for Tillerson given that he was completing a trip to China to rally U.S. allies against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. 
 
 While foreign policy experts were aghast that Trump had undercut Tillerson, two White House aides said Trump was angry at Tillerson for diverging from the president’s approach of intimidating Kim, whom Trump (but not Tillerson) calls “Little Rocket Man.” 
 
 Wednesday’s extraordinary drama also exposed the limits of the new discipline White House chief of staff John Kelly has sought to impose. Tillerson and Mattis have developed a close relationship but often struggle to coordinate with the president and his closest aides. 
 
 In addition to his struggles with the president, Tillerson has taken on his own department, pledging to reorganize the State Department and slash its diplomatic corps, engendering deep suspicion and even hostility within the ranks of the foreign service. 
 
 R.C. Hammond, Tillerson’s spokesman, issued his own cleanup Wednesday, tweeting that he “spoke out of line” when he told NBC about conversations regarding Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who is rumored to be a potential replacement for Tillerson. 
 
 Hammond had told NBC that Pence had asked Tillerson whether he thought Haley “was helpful to the administration, or if he was worried about the role she was playing.” 
 
 “Regarding the NBC News report: I spoke out of line about conversations I wasn’t privy to,” Hammond tweeted on Wednesday. “I should’ve given more complete info or none at all regarding the positive role Amb. Haley plays in the Admin.” 
 
 Jarrod Agen, a spokesman for Pence, also issued a statement, denying that the vice president had talked with Tillerson about potentially leaving or questioned Tillerson about Haley’s role. 
 
 “The Vice President can also confirm that, as the Secretary of State made clear, at no time did he and the Secretary ever discuss the prospect of the Secretary’s resignation from the administration,” Agen said in the statement. “In addition, any statements that the Vice President questioned Ambassador Nikki Haley’s value to the Trump Administration is also categorically false.” 
 
 Tillerson, a political newcomer who faced one of the most contentious Senate confirmation hearings in recent history, said in the past that he was hesitant to accept the position of secretary of state and had been looking forward to retirement before it was offered. 
 
 “I didn’t want this job. I didn’t seek this job,” Tillerson told the Independent Journal Review in March. “My wife told me I’m supposed to do this.” 
 
 Josh Dawsey, Annie Karni and Louis Nelson contributed to this report. 
 
 CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that NBC had reported that Vice President Mike Pence persuaded Secretary of State Rex Tillerson not to resign. ||||| Washington (CNN) The State Department released its annual report on the state of human rights across the globe Friday with markedly less fanfare than in previous years. 
 
 Secretary of State Rex Tillerson chose not to hold the traditional press conference that has accompanied the release of the report for decades across both Democratic and Republican administrations. 
 
 Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican member of the Foreign Relations Committee who was initially critical of Tillerson's nomination as secretary of state before ultimately voting to confirm him, blasted the move. 
 
 "For 1st time in a long time @StateDept #humanrights report will not be presented by Secretary of State," Rubio tweeted Thursday evening. "I hope they reconsider." 
 
 Tillerson did write a brief preface to the report, in which he stated, "standing up for human rights and democracy is not just a moral imperative but is in the best interests of the United States in making the world more stable and secure." 
 
 The State Department has released the congressionally mandated report on countries' human rights practices since the mid-1970s. For decades, the release has been accompanied by an on-camera press briefing from senior officials within the department, as well as introductory remarks by the secretary of state. 
 
 When the secretaries haven't been present, as happened twice under President George W. Bush, their absence has coincided with trips abroad. 
 
 Tillerson, for his part, was in Washington Friday for a meeting with his Indian counterpart at the State Department. 
 
 In a conference call with reporters Friday morning, a senior administration official who did not want to be named publicly refuted the suggestion by critics that Tillerson's absence reflects a change in the United States' commitment to promoting human rights. 
 
 "The report speaks for itself," the official said. "We're very, very proud of it. The facts should really be the story here." 
 
 The official also quoted Tillerson's statement in his confirmation hearing that the administration's approach to human rights "begins by acknowledging that American leadership requires moral clarity." 
 
 "We do not face an either-or choice on defending global human rights -- our values or our interests -- when it comes to human rights and humanitarian assistance," he said at the time. 
 
 During that hearing, Tillerson was questioned about his stance on human rights issues at length by lawmakers, including Rubio, who clashed with Tillerson over the latter's cautious answers about human rights abuses in Russia, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines. 
 
 Asked whether extrajudicial killings in the Philippines represent human rights violations, Tillerson answered, "If confirmed ... it's an area that I'd want to understand in greater detail in terms of the facts on the ground." 
 
 Tillerson told Rubio: "I'm not disputing anything you're saying because I know you have access to information that I do not have." 
 
 Rubio responded, "This is from The Los Angeles Times." 
 
 The government of the Philippines was taken to task in Friday's report, cited for "killings allegedly undertaken by vigilantes, security forces and insurgents" as well as corruption and allegations of torture by security forces. 
 
 It wasn't the only ally to face criticism. 
 
 In Turkey, the report pointed to "inconsistent access to due process" and "government interference with freedom of expression" as significant human rights problems. 
 
 Tillerson's decision not to speak publicly about the report, and the State Department's decision not to hold an on-the-record press conference, was criticized Friday by human rights groups. 
 
 Rob Berschinski of Human Rights First and a former deputy assistant secretary for human rights said in a statement that Tillerson's decision "is yet another troubling indication that the Trump administration intends to abandon US leadership on human rights and universal values." 
 
 "Such a decision sends an unmistakable signal to human rights defenders that the United States may no longer have their back, a message that won't be lost on abusive governments," he added. 
 
 According to former State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley, the more subdued rollout is likely the result of a combination of factors, including the fact that Tillerson is still adapting to his new position. 
 
 "It's a matter of not having a full team in place, it's a matter of timing, and it's also a matter of hitting him when he's still getting comfortable as the secretary of state, and everything that comes along with that," said Crowley. 
 
 But he acknowledged the administration could also be signaling a change in policy when it comes to promoting human rights abroad. 
 
 "Certainly by some of President Trump's rhetoric both in the campaign and as president, he does not see the role of his administration as telling other countries how to function, or certainly not to intervene to remake countries," said Crowley. "He's made clear that he's not going to be in the nation-building business and whether this is a reflection of that, I think we'll have to wait and see."
– A word that has been dogging Secretary of State Rex Tillerson: absence. Absence from the spotlight, from a high-profile human rights event Friday, and from the press, though that's set to change, somewhat, as of Monday. A rep for the State department attempted to answer the question of where, exactly, Tillerson has been, noting 32 phone calls with representatives of foreign countries and 15 in-person meetings on US soil with "foreign interlocutors" (plus two trips abroad), per Politico. The latest: The State Department has historically held a daily press briefing on each business day; under Tillerson, there have been none. That's set to change Monday, though the approach has been tweaked: There won't be briefings on Fridays, and two of the weekly briefings will be conducted over the phone. Politico's take on the lack of briefings thus far: "The long silence has irritated American diplomats who have watched other foreign ministry spokesmen ... try to seize control of narratives without State being able to respond." Another absence that irritated and confused some: Tillerson didn't attend Friday's release of the department's annual report on human rights around the world. CNN reports that for decades the secretary has given the introduction at the high-profile event, and points out that during two exceptions under George W. Bush, the secretary was on a trip abroad; that wasn't true of Tillerson. He's also been absent from President Trump's first three summit meetings with his foreign counterparts: Canada's Justin Trudeau, Japan's Shinzo Abe and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, though Tillerson has met with Netanyahu. Just Security sees this as "very odd ... especially for someone who has no foreign policy experience and most likely does not have prior relationships with these leaders. Plus, being present at a meeting with the president shows foreign leaders—and the public and the State Department staff—that the president trusts and listens to you." Some say it's just Tillerson doing what made him so successful as CEO of Exxon: "He's an engineer and engineers learn the facts and follow where they lead. He's a systems guy, a step-by-step guy ... He's starting out slow as he learns the job," a former national security adviser for George W. Bush tells the Los Angeles Times. We may see what Tillerson is made of soon enough, though. The White House has indicated it plans to slash the State Department's budget. Tillerson has yet to publicly comment on the news (the LAT points out Mitch McConnell has, saying the Senate isn't likely to greenlight extreme cuts). But this after "he lost ... his first battle with the president," as one State employee tells the Atlantic: Tillerson's choice of (past Trump critic) Elliott Abrams as his No. 2 was vetoed by the president. The position remains open. At Vanity Fair, Emily Jane Fox sees a "curious silver lining" for Tillerson. "While the Russian intrigues swirling around the president continues to ensnare more members of his administration, the one man who knows Putin best has managed to stay off the radar by remaining off the grid. It may just be that his diminished role role might be what allows him to walk away the least scathed in the end."