Donald Trump respects dealmakers — movers and shakers who get their way. Consider his cabinet so far: generals, billionaires, and individuals who advocate privatization and business-friendly overhauls of public education, health care, environmental and labor regulations, and more. So it’s no surprise the CEO of the biggest multinational oil company captured Trump’s imagination for secretary of state. The worrying question is whether the president-elect — who has vowed to put “America First’’ and scrap deals on trade, climate, and nuclear security — intends to privatize foreign policy too, elevating corporate interests above other values that underpin our nation’s democratic worldview.
ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, a 64-year-old Texan who’s spent his working life at Exxon, is by all accounts a smart, tough negotiator at the helm of America’s second-biggest company by revenue last year. Tillerson’s multibillion-dollar deal-making in Russia — winning lucrative projects where others got stiffed — and his effective working relationship with Vladimir Putin are a plus for Trump, who’s eager to cooperate with Russia against Islamic terrorism and seems unperturbed by Putin’s annexation of Crimea and repression of opposition at home.
Tillerson’s perceived coziness with Moscow is a liability, too, now that the CIA has concluded Russia hacked Democrats’ e-mails to help Trump win, building pressure for a congressional investigation. The Order of Friendship, bestowed on the Exxon boss by Putin, and Tillerson’s opposition to US sanctions that froze Exxon oil projects in Russia have rankled some Senate Republicans, including John McCain and Marco Rubio, who may put him in the confirmation hot seat.
They’re not alone in questioning what turning a corporate czar into a top diplomat will mean for foreign policy. Exxon operates in more than 50 countries and territories, including some with the world’s most brutal, corrupt dictatorships, such as Angola and Equatorial Guinea, where Exxon is the biggest investor. “We know that Tillerson has been successful in safeguarding the interests of a massive oil company — will he be as invested in safeguarding human rights abroad?’’ asked Amnesty International’s Eric Ferrero. Environmentalists are equally nervous. Unlike Trump, Tillerson doesn’t deny science linking carbon emissions to climate change, though he has suggested global warming can be managed through engineering.
Tillerson knows leaders from China to Mexico where Trump wants to extract “better deals’’ on currency, trade, and migration. But before he gets the job, Tillerson must overcome concerns that he’d put corporate interests above the nation’s. Tillerson holds 2.6 million shares of ExxonMobil stock, worth $245 million, though he owns only 610,000 of those shares outright, according to company filings. His pension alone is worth more than $150 million, all of which creates an obvious conflict of interest. The solution is to liquidate his holdings. Exxon’s board, I’m told, is deliberating over an exception to policy to vest Tillerson’s stock early.
A former Boy Scouts of America president who pushed for accepting gay youth, Tillerson still lists “Eagle Scout’’ on his resume and admirers insist honesty underlies his toughness. Someone in oil and gas who’s known him for more than a decade told me that, far from being a tool of Putin, Tillerson was the only foreign oil executive “who never got pushed around by the Russians,’’ because he stubbornly insisted on sticking to deals.
That doesn’t erase that Tillerson has spent his career profiting in cooperation with some of the world’s worst regimes. Executives who work with shady governments often justify their investments as improving lives. That’s true only if you hold partners accountable. Tillerson must now convince senators he’ll be working not for corporate interests, but for America’s broader interest in good governance worldwide — and that he’ll stand up to Trump if asked to do otherwise.
Indira A.R. Lakshmanan is a Washington columnist. Follow her on Twitter @Indira_L.
