WASHINGTON—Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson insisted on Wednesday that he has never considered resigning, despite what associates have described as deep frustration. But he did not deny a report that he has grown so disenchanted with President Trump that he once referred to him as a “moron.”

Just three days after Trump publicly undercut Tillerson by dismissing efforts to reach out to North Korea, the secretary of state abruptly summoned reporters to reaffirm his loyalty to the president and dispute a report by NBC News that he had been prepared to step down over the summer until counselled by Vice-President Mike Pence.

“The vice-president has never had to persuade me to remain as secretary of state because I have never considered leaving this post,” Tillerson said.

But Tillerson did not contest other elements of the article, including an episode when he was said to have called Trump a “moron” after a meeting at the Pentagon with other national security officials last summer.

“I’m not going to deal with petty stuff like that,” he replied when asked specifically if he had assigned that label to the president.

The extraordinary spectacle of the secretary of state denying plans to resign was the latest rupture in an administration that has been consumed by palace intrigue from the start. Just last week, Tom Price resigned as secretary of health and human services after being publicly scolded by Trump for his use of chartered flights.

Trump has lost a string of top officials, including a chief of staff, a national security adviser, a chief strategist, a press secretary and two communications directors. He has fired the FBI director, belittled his attorney general and criticized the deputy attorney general.

The White House offered a tepid endorsement of Tillerson after his statement. “As we’ve said many times before, if the president doesn’t have confidence in somebody, they will no longer be in their position,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, told reporters on Air Force One as Trump flew to Las Vegas.

Trump, speaking with reporters in Las Vegas, where he was visiting victims of this week’s mass shooting, dismissed the report that Mr. Tillerson considered resignation. “It was fake news,” he said. “It’s a totally phony story.” Asked about the secretary, Mr. Trump said, “Total confidence in Rex. I have total confidence.”

At a briefing in Washington, Heather Nauert, the State Department spokeswoman, said Tillerson was not asked to speak to the media but chose to do so on his own. She said the secretary spoke with Trump after making his statement and later reported to her that “it was a good conversation.”

Asked why Tillerson did not deny using the word “moron,” Nauert denied it for him. “The secretary did not use that type of language to speak about the president of the United States,” she said. “He does not use that language to speak about anyone.” Pressed, she said flatly, “He did not say that.”

Even as Tillerson denied a rift on Wednesday, he alluded to significant differences over North Korea and Iran. He stressed the possibility of a peaceful resolution of the nuclear dispute with North Korea and associated himself with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who just a day earlier endorsed retaining the nuclear agreement with Iran that Trump has threatened to rip up. He praised Mattis as a “secretary of defense who embraces diplomacy” and noted that they speak nearly every day.

Tillerson said he had not spoken with Trump on Wednesday morning before making his statement but offered words of praise. “President Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda has given voice to millions who felt completely abandoned by the political status quo and who felt their interests came second to those of other countries,” he said. “President Trump’s foreign policy goals break the mold of what people traditionally think is achievable on behalf of our country.”

Much attention has focused on Tillerson, a former chief executive of Exxon Mobil with no prior government or diplomatic experience. He has bristled at White House aides over unfilled appointments, been publicly contradicted more than once and distanced himself from the president’s statements blaming “both sides” for violence at a white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, Va.

At one point in June, the secretary of state was trying to mediate a dispute between Qatar and its Arab neighbors and called for a “calm and thoughtful dialogue,” only to have the president less than an hour later lash out at Qatar as a financier of terrorism. Tillerson has cited that episode as the moment when he realized that he would not last long in the job, and that no one could, according to one person who spoke with him at the time.

Over the weekend, Tillerson told reporters travelling with him to China that he had been exploring the possibility of talks with North Korea through two or three channels. Trump was described by advisers as livid and publicly undercut the secretary of state on Twitter by telling him he was “wasting his time,” adding, “Save your energy, Rex.”

The tension grew on Wednesday morning with the NBC News article reporting that Tillerson was ready to resign over the summer. The article said that the secretary was particularly upset at Trump’s politicized speech before the Boy Scouts of America, an organization Tillerson previously headed. He was in Texas at the time for his son’s wedding and threatened not to return to Washington, NBC reported, citing three people with direct knowledge of the threat, though it did not name them.

In his statement to reporters on Wednesday, Tillerson did not address whether the Boy Scouts speech had bothered him but denied contemplating resignation.

“There has never been a consideration in my mind to leave,” Tillerson said. “I serve at the appointment of the president and I am here for as long as the president feels I can be useful to achieving his objectives.”

Trump, for his part, denounced the report. “NBC News is #FakeNews and more dishonest than even CNN,” he wrote on Twitter before the secretary’s statement. “They are a disgrace to good reporting. No wonder their news ratings are way down!”

After Tillerson addressed reporters, Trump added: “The @NBCNews story has just been totally refuted by Sec. Tillerson and @VP Pence. It is #FakeNews. They should issue an apology to AMERICA!”

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Pence issued a statement through a spokesman praising Tillerson. “The vice-president can also confirm that, as the secretary of state asserted, at no time did he and the secretary discuss the prospect of resignation,” said Jarrod Agen, the vice-president’s communications director. “Any reporting to the contrary is categorically false.”

Still, other Republicans acknowledged the tension inside the administration for Tillerson and other figures like Mattis and John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff. “I think that he and Kelly and Mattis are working very well together collectively under very difficult circumstances — very difficult circumstances,” Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters, emphasizing the last phrase.

Asked if he thought others in the administration were undermining Tillerson’s authority, Corker said, “I don’t think it — based on my observations, I’m certain of it.”

Rex Tillerson says it's important for him to reaffirm his 'commitment to this role President Trump' has asked him to serve as secretary of state. (The Associated Press)

Corker said he hoped Tillerson would stay, but a prominent former Republican official urged him to resign.

“Rex Tillerson has been dealt a bad hand by the Potus & has played it badly,” Richard N. Haass, a State Department official for Republican presidents and now the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote on Twitter, using the initials for president of the United States. “For both reasons he cannot be effective SecState & should resign.”

The president, to some extent, views Tillerson, a stoic Texan known for his hardheaded negotiations with foreign leaders over petroleum deals, as another granite-jawed Cabinet secretary who fits his requirement that top advisers look as if they came out of “central casting,” as he has put it.

But Tillerson had special appeal for the president. Trump takes as a point of personal pride having hired the one-time head of the world’s largest corporation and pointedly reminded visitors of that fact often — and in the presence of a profoundly uncomfortable Tillerson, whom the president for months referred to as “Mr. Exxon.”

The deliberate, slow-talking oil executive has little personal chemistry with the quick-talking, impulsive Trump, and has expressed his frustration at being repeatedly overruled on major foreign policy issues.

Tillerson has avoided expressing his pique to the president verbally. But aides and Trump associates who have been in the room with them said that Tillerson’s body language and terse expressions have left little doubt that he disapproves of Trump’s approach.

Trump, they say, has noticed the way Tillerson slouches in his presence, particularly when he disagrees with a presidential decision, and he has a verbal tic that gets under the president’s skin. Tillerson, according to two former administration officials, often says, “It’s your deal,” to Trump when overruled on a policy decision.

The president has also remarked to aides that Tillerson seems less comfortable with the West Wing chain of command than Mattis, Kelly or Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Those three are career military men and careful to appear deferential to Trump, who is keenly attuned to perceived slights by subordinates.

Nonetheless, Tillerson has not expressed serious objections to attempts by Trump, spearheaded by the president’s ferociously anti-globalist former chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, to drastically scale back the bureaucracy. The secretary has repeatedly told associates that he was flabbergasted by the Obama-era organization chart, particularly the proliferation of special envoys to deal with problems ranging from the Middle East to climate change.

Tillerson, however, has been frustrated with Washington in general, according to an associate familiar with his thinking. He retreats to Texas when he can, and he has been surprised by how much Washington stymies tangible accomplishments. He has stayed on the job out of a sense of duty to the country, but he has never enjoyed much about the job, associates say.

His aides also have spent a substantial amount of time looking over their shoulders at Nikki R. Haley, the ambassador to the United Nations, who is seen as a probable replacement if Tillerson leaves. R.C. Hammond, Tillerson’s spokesman, was quoted by NBC as saying that Pence had asked Tillerson if Haley was helpful to the administration.

Hammond on Wednesday expressed regret for saying that. “I spoke out of line about conversations I wasn’t privy to,” he wrote on Twitter. “I should’ve given more complete info or none at all regarding the positive role Amb. Haley plays in the Admin.”

Pence’s spokesman rejected the report as well. “Any assertion that the vice-president questioned Ambassador Nikki Haley’s value to the Trump administration is also categorically false,” Agen said. “The vice-president has known Ambassador Nikki Haley for many years and holds her in the highest personal and professional regard.”

A contingent of White House aides has sought to undermine Tillerson for weeks, viewing him as a new target after Reince Priebus was dispatched as chief of staff. Within the West Wing, Tillerson has been seen as undercut by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and adviser, who has taken the lead on negotiating Middle East peace and served as the president’s intermediary with several foreign leaders.

“First of all, you have to put yourself in Tillerson’s position,” said Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker and an informal adviser to the White House. “He was the head of one of the largest corporations in the world. He is now a subordinate. That is an enormous shift. He’s really not a Washington guy, he’s a Texan. That’s an enormous shift.” Moreover, young White House aides “have levels of authority that is infuriating,” Gingrich added.

“I think it would be really helpful for Tillerson to stay on,” Gingrich said, citing his relationships with Mattis and Kelly. “On the other hand, Trump is aggressive guy and he can turn on a dime.”

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