President Donald Trump will have lunch with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Monday after Tillerson appeared to distance Trump’s statements from the nation’s values.
The president isn’t one to take kindly to criticism, but he has yet to publicly comment on Tillerson’s remarks. The White House schedule for Monday says that Trump and Vice President Pence will have lunch with the secretary of state, and later Trump will host a joint press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.
Tillerson appeared on “Fox News Sunday” and said that the State Department represents “America’s values, our commitment to freedom, our commitment to equal treatment of people the world over, and that message has never changed.”
He continued on to say that he doesn’t believe “anyone doubts the American people’s values,” and host Chris Wallace asked, “And the president’s values?”
Tillerson replied, “The president speaks for himself, Chris.”
Wallace asked Tillerson if he was separating himself “from that” and the secretary of state didn’t deny that was the case, instead referring to a recent speech he made condemning bigotry.