Rex Tillerson was confirmed as the 69th secretary of state on Wednesday afternoon, February 1. It proved to be one of the most controversial and contested nominations made by President Donald Trump. Tillerson was confirmed by the slimmest of margins, with the Senate voting 56 to 43. The New York Times in an article by Gardiner Harris wrote:

The many votes against Mr. Tillerson’s confirmation made his selection among the most contentious for a secretary of state in recent history, and he takes his post just as many traditional American allies are questioning the policies of President Trump. In the past 50 years, the most contentious confirmations for secretary of state were those of Condoleezza Rice in 2005, who passed by a vote of 85 to 13, and Henry Kissinger in 1973, who was confirmed 78 to 7.

Tillerson is the former ceo of Exxon Mobil, and has faced scrutiny over his business dealings with repressive governments and his history in working with government-owned Russian energy companies. Many lawmakers in Washington believe these former business ties will compromise the secretary of state and distort his judgment. With controversy surrounding President Trump’s relationship with Russia, Tillerson’s history caused an uproar from Democrats and Republicans.

The partisan opposition to the nomination is but a small prelude to the controversy of the issues facing Tillerson as he assumes responsibility of America’s diplomat corps. Tillerson has pledged to abide by the “America first” mantra of President Trump, and will lead the way in revolutionizing American foreign policy. Among the topics he and the state department will examine is the Iran nuclear deal, the U.S. Embassy in Israel moving to Jerusalem, sanctions on Russia, and deteriorating relations with China. R. Nicholas Burns, a Harvard professor and career service officer, commented:

Rex Tillerson will have the most demanding and complex agenda to face a secretary of state in a very long time.

One of Secretary Tillerson’s greatest challenges will be to reconcile differences between President Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The New York Times piece continued:

The relationship with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, already tense from Mr. Trump’s repeated denunciations of the European Union for which she is a principal guardian, threatened to become toxic after Peter Navarro, the director of Mr. Trump’s new National Trade Council, denounced the relatively low value of the euro as an unfair currency advantage for Germany.Tillerson faces the most difficult task of any secretary of state in the postwar era in trying to reconcile President Trump’s intention to make a radical break from decades of bipartisan consensus U.S. foreign policy leadership with the reality that, if he succeeds, such a break could lead to global chaos,” said Ryan C. Crocker, who served as the United States ambassador to five Muslim countries.

The stakes are high and time is short for Tillerson to prove to skeptical Americans, and nervous world leaders, that the United States of America is still the leader of the liberal world order.

Listen to the Trumpet Daily Radio Show “U.S. Accuses Germany of Running a Currency Racket as EU Chief Calls Donald Trump a ‘Threat,” with Stephen Flurry, to learn more about the future of American diplomacy.