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Report: Diplomats Told to ‘Avoid Eye Contact’ With Tillerson

State Dept. diplomats reportedly told not to speak to him directly.

President Trump’s secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, has been so cut off from his own diplomats during his tenure that employees have been told not to speak directly to him or even make eye contact, according to a new report in The Washington Post. The former ExxonMobil chief executive reportedly takes a private elevator to his office, and he is rarely seen by State Department workers, including higher level career diplomats. Many have told the Post that they haven’t even met him, and Tillerson has on foreign trips broken with tradition in skipping over embassy stops that have for decades been morale-boosters under other administrations. According to the Post, Tillerson’s isolationist approach has created discord within his agency. Even still, one unnamed official said: “We’re rooting for our secretary of State to come around.” Others denied that characterization. “We are having absolutely no problem, I promise you, with access or accessibility” at the State Department or White House, said British Ambassador to the United States Kim Darroch.