Who is Rex Tillerson? Though he was just recently axed as secretary of state, he helmed the position after Trump took office. Before he entered the White House, Tillerson was the CEO of Exxon Mobile — a position he held for ten years. During that time, he was awarded “The Order of Friendship” by Vladimir Putin, after he negotiated an estimated $500,000,000,000 deal with Rosneft, a Putin-controlled oil company. This allowed for Exxon to drill in an untapped subsection of Russian landscape. Sanctions from the U.S. were supposed to halt this, but Tillerson kept drilling, which led to a $2,000,000 fine.

Tillerson, unlike his boss in the White House, does believe that humans are ruining the environment through greenhouse gas, however, he’s stated it’s not clear, “to what extent, therefore, what can you do about it.”

Since his nomination, he’s been undercut by Trump at almost every corner. The president has gone over Tillerson’s head several times on foreign policy issues, as well as with the Paris Accord. While Tillerson was in support of being part of that global conversation. Trump took America out of it. This has led to tensions — Tillerson even allegedly called Trump a moron. So it’s really not too much of a surprise that he’s been axed from the position.