Rex Tillerson rebuffs claim Trump has ‘castrated’ him

Rex Tillerson, US secretary of state, on Sunday rejected claims that he was being undermined by President Donald Trump who has publicly rebuked his top diplomat.

“I checked. I’m fully intact,” Mr Tillerson, the former chief executive of ExxonMobil who also owns a cattle ranch in Texas, told CNN when asked whether he felt “gelded”.

Mr Tillerson, who recently came under fire for reportedly referring to Mr Trump as a “moron”, was indirectly responding to his ally Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate foreign relations committee, who said Mr Trump had “publicly castrated” him.

Rumours have swirled about Mr Tillerson’s future for months, amid signs of personality and policy differences with Mr Trump. The president this week offered to have his IQ tested against Mr Tillerson after the reports about being called a moron.

After Mr Tillerson this month revealed that the US was talking to North Korea, Mr Trump tweeted that he was “wasting his time”. Mr Trump later said that he respected his secretary of state but would prefer him to be tougher at times.

Mr Tillerson, meanwhile, appeared to rebuke Mr Trump over his response to the violent August protests in Charlottesville when he said “the president speaks for himself”.

Mr Tillerson on Sunday once again refused to say whether he had called Mr Trump a moron. “These are the games of Washington,” he said. “And so my position on it is, I’m not playing. I’m not playing. You want to make a game out of it, I’m not playing.”

I checked. I’m fully intact

Mr Trump has shown no compunction about publicly chastising his top officials, from Mr Tillerson to Jeff Sessions, the attorney-general, who has been rebuked several times despite having been an early supporter and loyal adviser during the campaign.

In recent weeks, John Kelly, the retired general hired as White House chief of staff, has also faced rumours about his relationship with the president amid a spate of reports that his decision to control both the information flowing to Mr Trump and access to the Oval Office was irking the president and making him feel isolated.

In his first public interaction with the media, Mr Kelly denied that he was leaving. “Although I read it all the time . . . I’m not quitting today,” Mr Kelly said on Thursday. “I just talked to the president, I don’t think I’m being fired today. And I am not so frustrated in this job that I’m thinking of leaving.”

The White House has denied that Mr Trump is at odds with his chief of staff, secretary of state, or other officials. But the president faced criticism from an unlikely corner this week when Tom Barrack, a financier who is a close friend, rebuked Mr Trump over some of his comments. In an interview with the Washington Post, Mr Barrack said he had been “shocked” by some of the incendiary rhetoric from Mr Trump, and that he believed his friend of three decades should be “better than this”.

While Mr Kelly has imposed discipline on the White House — ranging from cracking down on leaks to requiring all staff to report to him — he has had little obvious impact on the inflammatory rhetoric and tweets that Mr Trump likes to hurl at people.

Mr Kelly brushed aside suggestions that he has been ineffective and unable to control Mr Trump’s rhetoric, saying he was not hired to oversee his use of Twitter. He also criticised the media for stories that suggested he was unhappy on the basis of poses caught on camera during Mr Trump’s speeches where he appears to look anguished.

“As far as the tweets go, you know, it’s funny. I read in the paper . . . I’ve been a failure at controlling the president, or a failure at controlling his tweeting,” said Mr Kelly. “I was . . . not brought to this job to control anything but the flow of information to our president, so that he can make the best decisions.”

Follow Demetri Sevastopulo on Twitter: @dimi