I know I’ve said it before, but what a ridiculous, petty, little man!

So last week the hot button was Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s employment status, as reports regarding tensions between the former Exxon CEO and the reality TV huckster began to bubble to the media surface.

The condensed version: Tillerson and Trump stand on opposite sides with several issues (such as the Iran nuclear deal). Tillerson has a habit of not answering his phone, which annoys the White House. Trump’s inappropriately politicized speech to the Boy Scouts at this year’s Boy Scout Jamboree enraged Tillerson, a former Eagle Scout and national Boy Scout president. That resulted in Tillerson threatening to not return, and calling the president a “f**king moron.”

Tillerson later appeared in a televised press conference – one that had the feel of a hostage video – and denied ever threatening to quit.

He didn’t deny Trump was a moron, or that he’d said he was. He just refused to entertain it, although the State Department later issued a statement to deny Tillerson had uttered the words.

In other words, there’s tension.

We’re waiting for Kellyanne Conway to say the president has full confidence in Tillerson, so we can make plans for a nice “retirement” basket for the guy.

Other reports are that Trump is having a hissy fit over Tillerson’s refusal to plainly state during his press conference that he did not call him a moron.

Trump demands loyalty, after all.

In a Forbes interview released today, Trump addressed the “moron” issue, in his usual graceless, arrogant manner.

“I think it’s fake news, but if he did that, I guess we’ll have to compare IQ tests,” Trump told Forbes in an interview published Tuesday.

“And I can tell you who is going to win.”

Yeah. No tension there, right?

The fact that Trump is tweeting about it or entertaining it, at all, shows his feathers are ruffled. He lacks focus, and intellectual limitations aside, he does not have the respect of his Cabinet members that he hoped the world would believe when the White House released that roundtable propaganda video several months ago, featuring Cabinet members taking turns lavishing the new king with adoration.

Rex Tillerson was in that video, by the way, looking as somber as a stone sentinel.

Another interesting tidbit to come from the reported tensions between Trump and Tillerson is that there is a reported “suicide pact,” between Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.

Reportedly, if one should become a target for firing by the White House, the others will walk, as well.

There’s also talk of the “band of brothers,” being Tillerson, Mattis, and chief of staff John Kelly.

There were whispers before the inauguration of certain members of the Cabinet taking on the responsibility of serving in a Trump White House because they felt they could serve as “buffers” between the chaos of a reality TV host as president and the running of the country. The hope was that they could guide him through policy and lessen any potential damages he would cause, while also pushing a conservative agenda forward.

Bold, but reckless experiment.

Given the news of Cabinet members forming alliances, and Senator Bob Corker’s hilarious feud with Trump, where Corker has called the White House an adult day care center, and suggested Mattis, Tillerson, and Kelly are keeping the White House from descending into total chaos, it would appear there is at least some validity to reports of better men attempting to shield us from the full brunt of a Trump presidency.