Secretary of State Rex Tillerson revealed in a recent interview that before he agreed to his current post, he planned on retiring. However his wife convinced him to join President Donald Trump's administration.
"I didn't want this job. I didn't seek this job," the former ExxonMobil CEO said in an interview with the Independent Journal Review's Erin McPike that took place over the course of his recent trip to Asia. "My wife told me I'm supposed to do this."
Tillerson said that when Trump "asked me at the end of that conversation to be secretary of state, I was stunned," and that when he went home and told Renda St. Clair, his wife, she said, "I told you God's not through with you."
He continued, "I was supposed to retire in March, this month. I was going to go to the ranch to be with my grandkids," but concluded, "my wife convinced me. She was right. I'm supposed to do this."
Tillerson's scheduled to host a lunch for members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to discuss Russia. The Washington Post reports that members from both parties hope the secretary will assuage fears that the Trump administration won't abandon its allies in NATO and Europe in favor of the former Soviet state.
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