Rex Tillerson ExxonMobil CEO Becomes Secretary of State

Rex Tillerson, former ExxonMobil CEO who received Putin’s Order of Friendship for Russian energy deals and held approximately $54 million in ExxonMobil stock at the time of his confirmation (per NYT reporting, plus a separate right to roughly $180 million in deferred stock vesting over the following decade), became Secretary of State despite unprecedented opposition. Tillerson had negotiated a deal with Russia’s Rosneft valued at up to $300 billion in potential joint Arctic exploration and investment that was blocked by the 2014 sanctions he would go on to oversee. He dismantled the State Department, leaving 60% of top diplomat positions vacant, firing career officials, and proposing 31% budget cuts. Tillerson used private email for classified information, refused for over a year to spend $120 million Congress had allocated (FY2017 NDAA) to the Global Engagement Center to counter Russian interference, and was fired via tweet after calling Trump a ‘moron.’ His tenure marked the most severe diplomatic capacity reduction in State Department history.

[Note: dollar figures in this paragraph were corrected during the 2026-08-28 “unprecedented” superlative audit — the prior text had dropped leading digits/dollar signs (e.g. “00 billion” for what should read a specific dollar figure, “45 million” and “20 million” without $ signs), a separate mechanical corruption unrelated to the superlative check itself. Figures corrected via secondary sourcing (Wikipedia, citing NYT); recommend a follow-up pass against NYT/Reuters primary reporting directly to confirm the $54M vs. an alternate $45M figure seen in some secondary sourcing.]