Rex Tillerson arrives as ‘the new guy’ at the State Department

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sought to win the support of an uneasy State Department Thursday, asserting on arrival at department headquarters that he holds the nation’s career diplomats in “high regard” and will treat them with “respect” as President Trump’s top foreign policy adviser.

“Your dedication, your intelligence and your sound judgment are the brick and mortar elements” of U.S. diplomacy, Mr. Tillerson told an audience of career diplomats gathered in the main State Department lobby in Washington’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood.

He drew applause from the crowd by acknowledging that he’s “the new guy” and asserting that he “will depend on the expertise of this institution.”

“There are over 75,000 members of the State Department workforce, both foreign and civil service employees with an average of over 11 years of service in the department,” Mr. Tillerson said. “I have 25 minutes.”

The former Exxon Mobil CEO, who was confirmed by the Senate and sworn in as America’s 69th secretary of state on Wednesday night, had a packed schedule Thursday. Officials said Mr. Tillerson would hold separate meetings at State with Jordanian King Abdullah and German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel.

During his remarks on Thursday morning, meanwhile, Mr. Tillerson made no mention of acrimony currently gripping many department officials over President Trump’s recent executive order on extreme vetting of Muslim immigrants to the U.S.

The 64-year-old from Texas takes the helm in Foggy Bottom at a moment of uncertainty among many world leaders over the controversial executive order and Mr. Trump’s “America First” approach. Both have added to the already turbulent landscape of foreign policy challenges — from the North Korean nuclear threat to Syria’s civil war, a clash with Mexico over trade and border issues, Russian meddling in Ukraine and the fight against the Islamic State.

Hundreds of Foreign Service officers and State Department rank and file have reportedly signed a “dissent memo” in recent days criticizing the order Mr. Trump signed Friday to temporarily suspend all refugee access to the U.S. and halt visas to citizens of seven Muslim-majority nations.

Mr. Tillerson told the audience on Thursday morning that “each of us is entitled to the expression of our political beliefs, but we cannot let our personal convictions overwhelm our ability to work as one team.”

He stressed that he wants career department officials and his own staff “to be honest with each other.”

“Honesty will undergird our foreign policy,” Mr. Tillerson said. “We’re on the same team…We’re going to treat each other with respect.”

The new secretary of state sought to put a personal touch on his remarks, telling of how — prior to being nominated — he was preparing to retire with his wife Renda St. Clair and “head off the ranch and enjoy our grandchildren.”

“But when I came back from my first meeting with President Trump and he asked me to do this, Renda said you didn’t know it, but you’ve been in a 41 year training program for this job,” Mr. Tillerson said.

While Exxon Mobil, which he headed from 2006 through 2016, has projects in more than 50 countries, it remains to be seen how Mr. Tillerson’s experience running the massive oil company will translate will translate at State.

One key will be Mr. Trump and Mr. Tillerson’s choice to be deputy secretary of state — a position essential to managing both the message and policy implementation across the department’s many bureaus and missions focused on different parts of the world.

During his confirmation hearing last month, meanwhile, Mr. Tillerson faced scrutiny over close relationships he built with high-level Russian officials as head of ExxonMobil and the extent to which those relationships may influence his view of economic sanctions designed to contain Moscow’s meddling in Ukraine.

Another issue that drew scrutiny was Mr. Tillerson view on climate change. He told lawmakers “the risk of climate change does exist” and “the consequences of it could be serious enough that action should be taken.”

But environmental activists, outraged that Mr. Trump chose the former head of one of the world’s top fossil fuels companies to be America’s top diplomat, expressed fresh frustration on Wednesday.

“Exxon helped drive and deepen the global climate crisis and now, as secretary of state,” said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Tillerson will certainly ensure that the United States takes no action to make things any better.”

“We now have the CEO of one of the world’s biggest corporations driving U.S. foreign policy,” added Lindsey Allen, executive director of the Rainforest Action Network.

Others took aim at the non-Republicans who voted to confirm Mr. Tillerson.

In a 56-43 vote Wednesday, Republicans picked up three Democratic and one Independent vote to pierce the minority’s hoped-for united front against Mr. Trump’s unconventional nominee. Sens. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Mark R. Warner of Virginia voted to confirm, as did Democratic-leaning independent Sen. Angus S. King Jr. of Maine.

“Shame on Senators Manchin, Heitkamp, Warner and King,” said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth. “In voting for Tillerson, they have advanced the Trump administration’s Islamophobic, racist, misogynistic and xenophobic foreign policy agenda.”