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US Secretary of State Tillerson called Trump 'moron'
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US President Donald Trump walks from Marine One after arriving on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, Sept. 27, 2017, after traveling to Indiana to unveil his tax reform plan. (Agence France -Presse/Saul Loeb)
W
ashington's top diplomat Secretary of State Rex Tillerson came under new pressure Wednesday after a report claimed he had branded President Donald Trump a "moron" during a Pentagon meeting.
According to an NBC News report citing "multiple senior administration officials" a few days after the heated July 20 meeting, Vice President Mike Pence met Tillerson to ask him to show respect.
It is not clear whether Trump was aware of the language Tillerson had used, but Pence and other senior officials reportedly urged the former oilman not to resign.
The report, which includes a formal denial of the reported outburst from a senior Tillerson aide, came just days after Trump upbraided Tillerson for "wasting his time" trying to negotiate with North Korea.
State Department and White House staff did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment on the report, but Trump himself sent a new tweet which may have been provoked by the report.
"Wow, so many Fake News stories today. No matter what I do or say, they will not write or speak truth. The Fake News Media is out of control!" he wrote, without elaborating.
Wow, so many Fake News stories today. No matter what I do or say, they will not write or speak truth. The Fake News Media is out of control!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 4, 2017
Tillerson appeared at the State Department on Wednesday for a photo opportunity with Pakistani Foreign Khawaja Muhammad Asif but refused to respond to reporters' questions.
On Wednesday, Tillerson denied he had considered resigning from Trump's cabinet and dismissed a report that he had called the president a "moron" as "petty nonsense."
