Those who agreed to be a part of Donald Trump’s cabinet had to know that they were taking a risk.

As we’ve seen repeatedly in the last few months, there’s no loyalty from Trump, and there’s no way to accurately predict what crazed tangent he may take off on.

All we know for sure is that if the press secretary or anyone else says the president has full confidence in you, you’re gone within the week.

We also know that if an administration official makes a public statement on policy or some event, by the next morning, Trump will tweet something that completely undercuts what they just said, by the next morning.

On Saturday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sought to calm the nerves of those who see the tension rising between the U.S. and North Korea and fear the worse.

Said Tillerson:

Tillerson, speaking at a press conference in Beijing, said the US made it clear through its direct channels to North Korea that it was seeking peace through talks.

“We’ve made it clear that we hope to resolve this through talks,” Tillerson said.

“I think the most immediate action that we need is to calm things down,” Tillerson added. “They’re a little overheated right now, and I think we need to calm them down first.”

Diplomacy. Ok, sure. Let’s go with that.

He’s not wrong. War should always be the absolute last resort. And it’s not as if administration officials aren’t doing their part to toe the responsible line.

In September, Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Mattis briefed members of Congress on the strategy regarding North Korea.

Trump skipped that meeting, obviously, and some lawmakers couldn’t help but notice the difference between what they heard in the meeting and what Trump has said.

“I feel like we still have two different polices on North Korea: one at the Department of State and Department of Defense, and another on the President’s Twitter feed,” Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, said after the briefing.

Also, not wrong.

So now that Tillerson has revealed that we have a direct line of communication with North Korea, and stressed the importance of diplomacy, where do we stand?

In quicksand. We stand in quicksand, because we have a goofy reality TV host as president.

Trump took to Twitter this morning to make sure Tillerson looked appropriately impotent.

I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2017

…Save your energy Rex, we'll do what has to be done!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2017

And as if an afterthought, as I was finishing up this piece, Trump tweeted again:

Being nice to Rocket Man hasn't worked in 25 years, why would it work now? Clinton failed, Bush failed, and Obama failed. I won't fail.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2017

So much for diplomacy.

You have to wonder if Tillerson and some of the others in the cabinet ever look at themselves in the mirror and regret some of the career choices they’ve made in their recent pasts.