If President Donald Trump really wants Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to leave, he'll have to tell him to go.

Defying predictions of his demise, Tillerson is saddling up for another year in Washington and is making clear that leaks and speculation about how long he'll last will not drive him out.

Tillerson has been busy solidifying his position by starting to build the Washington constituency he never had, and showing signs of permanence after surviving one of the most difficult years ever endured by any modern secretary of state.
It might not seem like much, but he's managed to get the White House to sign off on his own pick, career diplomat and China expert Susan Thornton -- an enemy of the populist, nationalist wing of the administration -- as his top official on East Asia. And more of his picks are arriving at Foggy Bottom soon.

Tillerson is opening up to the media, conducting interviews with top outlets while his staff promises more access to a press pack he largely snubbed in his first year in office. And the secretary is telling friends and colleagues that he won't let his West Wing antagonists, who are known to include the President's son-in-law Jared Kushner and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, run him out of town.
And while the unpredictable Trump could again sour on Tillerson at any moment, the secretary of state is making it implicitly clear that only a direct push from the President -- who, despite his "you're fired" mantra, struggles with in person dismissals -- will do it.
"I think we're going to have a very productive 2018," Tillerson told CNN in an interview on Friday. "I intend to be here for the whole year."

(Source: CNN)