In a world fraught with peril in seemingly every region, the world’s most indispensable nation needs a top diplomat with unqualified support from the head of state.

Does Secretary of State Rex Tillerson have such support from Donald J. Trump, the president of the United States?

Um, no. Not even close.

There are reports that Trump is engineering a way to shove Tillerson out the door. The president now responds that “Rex is here,” meaning, I suppose, that he’s staying put.

Tillerson hasn’t exactly distinguished himself as secretary of state, other than to call the president a “f****** moron,” and then refuse to deny he said such a thing. Trump responded with a cheeky, childish tweet about how he would score better than Tillerson on an IQ test.

Isn’t that just swell?

This back and forth between the president and the secretary of state is unsettling in the extreme.

It has to stop. The president either needs to give the secretary his unqualified support or he needs to get someone on board who can speak for the president … without getting undermined.