Exxon CEO is now Trump's secretary of state favourite

Exxon Mobil Corp Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson emerged on Friday as President-elect Donald Trump’s leading candidate for US secretary of state, a senior transition official said. 

Trump met Tillerson on Tuesday and may talk to him again over the weekend, the official said. Trump appears to be in the final days of deliberations over his top diplomat with an announcement possible next week. 

Tillerson’s favoured status was revealed as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani formally withdrew from consideration for secretary of state. 

The transition official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Tillerson, 64, had moved ahead in Trump’s deliberations over 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who has met Trump twice, including at a dinner in New York. 

But the official said Romney was still under consideration for the job, along with John Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations; US Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, and retired Navy Admiral James Stavridis. 

Giuliani’s withdrawal came after he was fully vetted by the Trump transition team for his overseas business ties in what was described by the Trump official as an “intense” effort by lawyers and accountants.