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Thursday, November 12, 2026Nov 12

The Latest: Trump blasts report Tillerson wanted to leave

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Latest on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (all times local):

11:30 a.m.

President Donald Trump is pushing back on a report that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson considered resigning and called the president a “moron.”

Trump tweets that the story by NBC News “has just been totally refuted” by Tillerson and Vice President Mike Pence. He calls it “#FakeNews” and says the network “should issue an apology to AMERICA!”

Tillerson says at a news conference that he never considered leaving his post. But he’s not denying that he called his boss a “moron.” Asked about the report, Tillerson says, “We don’t deal with that kind of petty nonsense.”