Tillerson’s stalling has been interpreted as an attempt to hold onto a bargaining chip in the ongoing Gulf crisis. “I think ultimately, Tillerson felt that if he signs that away, he loses all that leverage in trying to solve the Qatar crisis because if we do that we come down fully on the side of the Saudis,” one current State Department staffer told me. “Why would he give that up? He wanted to hold that card because then he has something to negotiate with the Qataris.” It is certainly a curious move for a secretary of state. “By the time it comes to us, [the State Department] is an advocate for it, and then for them to turn around and to hold something up like this in this case because circumstances have changed honestly since they set the sale up, it’s unusual. It’s not unheard of, but it’s rare enough,” the Democratic congressional source said of Tillerson’s move, though he noted that the regional nature of Corker’s grip on lethal weapons sales is unprecedented.

“He is not going to play ball on all of the issues they want.”

Though Corker has taken some fire, Tillerson’s slow-walking of the deal has especially galled the White House, where his actions have been perceived as the secretary overstepping his authority, undermining the president and holding up American production jobs—adding further strain to his already frayed relationship with the president. “They see the [Saudi deal] as their big achievement and Tillerson is trying to be pragmatic about it because they have over-promised . . . and so I think it is drawing the ire,” the current State Department staffer said.

R.C. Hammond, Tillerson’s communications adviser, disputed that characterization, insisting that the president and the secretary are working in tandem on the arms sales deal and the resolution of the Gulf conflict. “They have had conversation about the role of any sort of arms sales and what they play as part of the larger plan and they are in agreement on how to utilize any potential leverage that exists,” he told me. “They have an understanding of how it can be used and these situations are dynamic, so it’s not set in stone but how they have been handling it is they would work together . . . It is not one going forward without the other. They are making these decisions together.”

Corker, for his part, is holding his ground. “Senator Corker will again begin providing informal clearance on future lethal arms sales to GCC members when there is a path forward to resolve the dispute and sees this as a tool for additional administration leverage,” an aide to the Tennessee lawmaker said in a statement to the Hive.

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Tillerson’s stances on Qatar, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela, among other controversial foreign-policy issues, might be more about protecting his legacy than anything else. In July, he reportedly expressed his disdain for Trump after the president's controversial speech to the Boy Scouts of America, calling him a “moron” and toying with the idea of submitting his resignation. (His fellow Cabinet members ultimately convinced him to stay on.) And as I reported in August, the secretary of state appeared to break with the president over his comments on Charlottesville, which were widely condemned by Tillerson’s old peers in the business community. And while Tillerson was not the only member of the White House to distance himself from Trump over the remarks, his declaration that the “president speaks for himself” was perhaps the most notable criticism of the president. In his role as America’s chief diplomat, Tillerson’s job literally is to speak for Trump.