On Friday afternoon, President Donald Trump tweeted:
Mike Pompeo is doing a great job, I am very proud of him. His predecessor, Rex Tillerson, didn’t have the mental capacity needed. He was dumb as a rock and I couldn’t get rid of him fast enough. He was lazy as hell. Now it is a whole new ballgame, great spirit at State!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2018
The president seems to be responding to an interview former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson gave on Thursday. In that interview, Tillerson described the president as someone who is “pretty undisciplined, doesn’t like to read, doesn’t read briefing reports, doesn’t like to get into the details of a lot of things, but rather just kind of says, ‘This is what I believe.’”
In essence, Tillerson was saying Trump is stupid and lazy, so Trump was echoing back these words. This is classic Trump. When accused of being a Russian puppet by his rival Hillary Clinton, Trump responded, “No puppet, no puppet. You’re the puppet.”
Previously, Trump has used the phrase “dumb as a rock” to describe several people including Don Lemon, Glenn Beck, Mika Brzezinski, and Rick Wilson. Trump uses the insult “lazy” less often. He’s applied it to Florida Senator Marco Rubio.
When Trump fired Tillerson in March 2018, he praised the outgoing Secretary of State for his “intellect” and said he “got along well with Rex.”