The occasion took place Tuesday at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., where he delivered a speech bubbling over with boilerplate, interesting only for his warnings of Russian aggression and his touting of America's allies as our most vital strength—both sentiments at odds with those of his president, a sign of his scant influence within the administration.
The eyebrow-raisers came during the Q&A session, when he was asked to explain the sharp reductions in the State Department's budget and the hollowing-out of its diplomatic corps. Tillerson replied that the cuts are “reflective of an expectation that we're going to have success … in getting these conflicts [around the world] resolved” and, therefore, won't need to have so many officials dealing with them.
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