The 65-year-old self-made Texas oilman has become one of Trump’s most frequent White House guests, often joining him in the residence for one-on-one dinners, or in the presidential dining room, along with Vice President Mike Pence, for lunch.

In Trump’s 83 days as president, Tillerson has had more meetings with the president than any other cabinet secretary, according to multiple White House aides and a review of public schedules. When Tillerson isn’t traveling abroad, the two men schedule a private dinner at least once a week.

In the month of March alone, Tillerson appeared on White House public schedules for a lunch, dinner, or an Oval Office meeting with Trump eight times, usually for private meetings. That tally doesn’t include his regular informal pop-ins to the White House. Tillerson typically spends unscheduled time with Trump in the Oval Office before or after NSC principals committee meetings, which the president does not attend…

Abrams said that Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster have formed “a triangle of people with the greatest influence, and that probably grows now because of the Syria strike, because it was so successful in military and political terms.” And Abrams argued that while Trump’s veto of his job at State was “taken to be a slap at Tillerson – I think that was a mistake. I don’t think my situation had anything to do with the president’s view of Tillerson. They spend an awful lot of time together.”