Report: Tillerson staff will not join Ivanka Trump for India trip

In another sign of tensions between President Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, CNN reports that the State Department isn’t sending senior staff to join Ivanka Trump on her high-visibility trip to India.

The first daughter will be attending the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, scheduled to be held in the city of Hyderabad from November 28-30.

The State Department takes a leading role in the annual event and last year, then-Secretary of State John Kerry delivered remarks at its opening. However, this year, CNN notes, citing inside sources, “No one higher than the deputy assistant secretary is allowed to participate. The secretary and his top staff have insisted on approving all travel— even the most minute details.”

And the decision is not said to be budget related.

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“Rex doesn’t like the fact that he’s supposed to be our nation’s top diplomat, and Jared and now Ivanka have stepped all over Rex Tillerson for a long time,” a source close to the White House told CNN. “So now, he’s not sending senior people from the State Department to support this issue. He’s not supporting Ivanka Trump.”

The apparent rift is not new and President Trump has cast doubt on Tillerson’s future.

In an early November interview on Fox News’ ‘The Ingraham Angle,’ he responded “we will see” to a question about whether Tillerson will remain in his post for the duration of the term.

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Trump also gave a lukewarm assessment of the secretary’s job performance, commenting, “Rex is in there working hard. He’s doing his best, he’s doing the best he can.”

Meanwhile, NBC News reported weeks ago that Tillerson had called the president a “moron” following a summer meeting at the Pentagon.

Tillerson addressed that report by offering glowing comments about Trump but did not deny the claim.