WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump is expected to name Rex Tillerson, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, as his secretary of state, three people close to the transition team confirmed Saturday.
Tillerson has worked extensively around the globe and built relationships with such leaders as Russian President Vladimir Putin. His nomination could face intense scrutiny in the Senate considering his years of work in Russia on behalf of the multinational petroleum company and his close ties to Putin.
Already, two leading Republican hawks, Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey O. Graham of South Carolina, have voiced concerns about Tillerson serving as the nation’s top diplomat.
Trump spokesman Jason Miller said Saturday that there would be no official announcement until this week “at the earliest.’’
But three officials briefed on Trump’s deliberations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that the pick would be Tillerson barring a late shift in Trump’s thinking. NBC News first reported that Trump has settled on Tillerson.
Trump is considering nominating John R. Bolton, a former ambassador to the United Nations and a combative hawk whose tenure in the George W. Bush administration was controversial, to be the deputy secretary of state, two of the officials said.
Trump appeared Saturday at the annual Army-Navy game at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, and expressed his admiration for the armed forces in an interview with CBS Sports. The president-elect is a 1964 graduate of the New York Military Academy near West Point.
Trump was joined at the game by several top advisers, including incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, senior adviser Steve Bannon, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and General Mike Flynn, Trump’s choice for national security adviser.
Trump spent a month deliberating over the secretary of state position and interviewed an array of candidates, including Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 GOP presidential nominee. During the campaign, Romney was the face of the Republican resistance to Trump’s candidacy.
Other prospects reportedly included Giuliani, Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, and former CIA director David Petraeus.
The president-elect settled on Tillerson, 64, because he projects gravitas, is regarded as a skillful manager, and personally knows many foreign heads of state through his dealings on behalf of the energy company, people close to Trump said.
In an excerpt of an interview with Fox News, which will be aired in full Sunday, Trump praised Tillerson, though did not reveal his decision.
“He’s much more than a business executive; he’s a world-class player,’’ Trump said. “He knows many of the players, and he knows them well. He does massive deals in Russia — for the company, not for himself.’’
Tillerson, a native of Wichita Falls, Texas, has spent his entire working life at Exxon after earning a civil engineering degree and joining the company in 1975.
Tillerson’s nomination would fit the pattern of other Trump appointments, installing a wealthy business leader with little experience in policymaking. But Tillerson has spent much of his career dealing with the complexities of one of the world’s biggest enterprises, spanning six continents and about six dozen nations.
The company’s deep ties to Russia would potentially serve Tillerson well given Trump’s desire to repair relations with the Kremlin.
But Tillerson’s close relationship with Vladimir Putin could also become a flashpoint during confirmation hearings, especially in light of a CIA assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Trump win, rather than just to undermine confidence in the US electoral system.
“Few corporate titans are closer to Putin than Tillerson,’’ said Jason Bordoff, founder of Columbia University’s center for global energy.
During the 1990s, Tillerson oversaw an Exxon project on Russia’s Sakhalin island and developed a working relationship with Putin. In 2011, the company signed an agreement with the state-controlled oil company, Rosneft, to work jointly on oil exploration and development in the Arctic and Siberia.
After inking the deal in New York, Tillerson, Rosneft’s chairman and Putin confidante Igor Sechin dined on caviar at the luxury Manhattan restaurant Per Se, according to one account. The next day they gave oil analysts pens with the date of the agreement in gold.
Two years later, the Kremlin awarded Tillerson the Order of Friendship, honoring foreigners.
“I don’t know the man much at all, but let’s put it this way: If you received an award from the Kremlin, [an] order of friendship, then we’re gonna have some talkin,’ ’’ Graham said. “We’ll have some questions. I don’t want to prejudge the guy but that’s a bit unnerving.’’
Exxon discovered oil in a well it drilled in the Kara Sea, but the joint partnership was put on ice after Russian intervention in Ukraine and annexation of the Crimea led to international economic sanctions.
As secretary of state, Tillerson would be in a position to argue for easing sanctions.
The secretary also takes the lead in international climate talks, and the oil industry veteran could play a role in unwinding US commitments under the recent Paris accord.
