U.S. President Donald Trump, who has yet to fill several positions in the State Department, shrugged off the vacancies, saying he’s the “only one that matters” when it comes to policy.
In an interview with Fox News Thursday, Trump chalked up the unfilled positions as a cost-saving measure.
“We don’t need all the people, don’t forget, I’m a business person and I tell my people we don’t need to fill slots, don’t fill them,” the president said. “But we have some people that I’m not happy with their thinking process.
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“The one that matters is me. I’m the only one that matters because when it comes to it, that’s what the policy is going to be,” Trump said.
Trump has filled only about half of the key positions in the department run by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who has made it a priority to overhaul the department.
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“Rex is in there working hard, he’s doing his best, he’s doing the best he can,” Trump said in the Fox News interview.
The president reiterated that he didn’t need all the positions filled.
“I want my vision, but my vision is my vision,”” Trump said. “It’s called cost saving. There’s nothing wrong with cost saving.”
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Asked if he planned to keep Tillerson on board for the rest of his term, Trump said: “Well, we’ll see. I don’t know.”
Earlier Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions suggested that Trump’s word is the only one that matters.
Speaking on national security measures and Trump’s proposed travel ban in the wake of the New York City truck attack, Sessions said Trump was “entitled to make judgment decisions not courts.”
“The CIA reports to him. The Department of Defence reports to him. The State Department, the FBI and it is his responsibility,” Sessions said.
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