How not to sack people

Judging by accounts in the Washington papers the manner in which Rex Tillerson was fired was pretty disgraceful, unedifying and humiliating. But I presume that's how Trump liked it. The conversation between firee and fired went something like this: General John Kelly, White House chief of staff, makes a call and reaches Tillerson when he is engaged in the toilet trying to come to terms with a serious stomach bug picked up during his African tour. There's no pleasanter way of putting it. Kelly, fully aware of what Tillerson was doing because he joked about it later, warned the then secretary of state that Trump was planning to fire him. Tillerson's response is not known but in between griping tummy pains it can't have been: "Oh never mind, excuse me while I finish....." Two days later Mr Nice Man Trump tweets - of course tweets - that Mike Pompeo is going to do a great job at State and thank you Rexie Baby, you're fired". Terrific PR, stupendous human resources. Trump didn't have the courage to let his secretary of state go to his face but did it through social media. The toilet scenario was just another way of rubbing it in. Poor Tillerson. He really wasn't cut out for the job of chief diplomat and clearly he was hopeless in pushing the State Department cause at the White House. But he still deserved a little more respect. Trump is not the first president to sack people, of course, and not the first one to make wrong judgements about appointees. For example, Admiral Dennis Blair was appointed by Barack Obama to be his first director of national intelligence. But unlike so many of Obama's closest officials, Blair was not a mate. He didn't know Obama, he wasn't part of his campaign team. He ended up being totally undermined by people junior to him who were closer to Obama and made their own recommendations to Obama about security and intelligence matters without even discussing it first with Blair. He was in an impossible position and felt like a stranger whenever he was in the White House. It was cruel to watch. It wasn't long before he was out. But this is the way the White House is. If you're not a crony of the president it's difficult to survive, and even then there's no guarantee of longevity. Remember what happened to Steve Bannon. But the Tillerson sacking will go down as one of the most callous exits from government. He was graceful in his departure, saying how honoured he had been. But everyone knows what he was really thinking, and he is still probably suffering from stomach cramps poor man.