Unsure what they should be doing under Trump, diplomats have been continuing with old policies and toning down their language when they’re unsure. With precious little work to do, career foreign service officers instead spend their time fretting in Foggy Bottom’s cafeteria about whether the diplomatic corps will be turned into a visa-stamping machine.

Update (3:2opm ET): White House spokesman Sean Spicer said today that the press corps was invited, but would have to travel by commercial air rather than on a State Department plane, as is traditional. “The plane that the secretary is taking does not accommodate” the press corps, he said, mentioning budget cuts. “There is an element of cost savings that the president is trying to achieve.”

A previous version of this article stated that Tillerson was traveling to North Korea. He is in fact traveling to Japan, South Korea and China.

📬 Sign up for the Daily Brief

Our free, fast, and fun briefing on the global economy, delivered every weekday morning.