El Presidente Trumpo finally got tired of Tillerson talking down his BFF Putin, and he has FIRED him this morning.
He tweeted about it just now:
Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018
Here’s the reporting from the Wall Street Journal:
President Trump has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, orchestrating a major change to his national security team amid delicate negotiations with North Korea, White House officials said Tuesday.
Trump last Friday asked Tillerson to step aside, and the embattled top diplomat cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington.
Pompeo will replace him at the State Department, and Gina Hapsel — the deputy director at the CIA — will succeed him at the CIA, becoming the first woman to run the spy agency, if confirmed.
In a statement issued to The Washington Post, Trump praised both Pompeo and Haspel.
“I am proud to nominate the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State,” Trump said. “Mike graduated first in his class at West Point, served with distinction in the U.S. Army, and graduated with Honors from Harvard Law School. He went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives with a proven record of working across the aisle.”
If Tillerson was reading my post yesterday, he would have saw this coming…. guess he shouldn’t have criticized Putin, huh?
UPDATE!!! The eminent scoop pointed out that it’s being reported Rexy was fired last Friday, before he made his last comments about Russia. I respond thusly: That could be accurate or not, but Tillerson has been critical of Putin and parted from the White House line for a long time now, even if his comment yesterday isn’t taken into consideration. So there.
Also here’s a video:
BREAKING: President Trump fires Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, will replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo https://t.co/BqHNEjPeG5 pic.twitter.com/y03pq32LFR
— OutFrontCNN (@OutFrontCNN) March 13, 2018
UPDATE (TRS): I’m very glad to see Tillerson go as he has been at odds with Trump from nearly day one. Just like others in the administration that Trump picked, he just wasn’t a good fit. It’s been a long time coming but I’m glad this day has finally arrived.
As a reminder…
The media has been speculating that I fired Rex Tillerson or that he would be leaving soon - FAKE NEWS! He’s not leaving and while we disagree on certain subjects, (I call the final shots) we work well together and America is highly respected again!https://t.co/FrqiPLFJ1E
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 1, 2017
UPDATE (TRS): Tillerson unaware of the reason for his ouster:
BREAKING: US State Dept. says that Tillerson "did not speak to the President and is unaware of the reason" for his ouster, "but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling." - @Abs_NBC
— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 13, 2018
Tillerson "had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security. He will miss his colleagues at the the Department of State and the foreign ministers he has worked with throughout the world," US State Dept. says.
— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 13, 2018
UPDATE (TRS): Trump admits he and Rex have been talking about this for a long time.
President Trump praises nominee to replace Rex Tillerson, Mike Pompeo: "we're always on the same wavelength."
"Rex and I have been talking about this for a long time, we got along actually quite well, but we disagreed on things." pic.twitter.com/4U1m8AbovQ
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 13, 2018
So all those times Trump called the rumors of Rex’s ouster ‘fake news’, it was really true. Wow.
And here is Trump admitting he didn’t discuss the decision to fire Rex with him last week:
Trump on Tillerson: "I didn't discuss it very much with him, honestly" pic.twitter.com/oAl4mGL00E
— Axios (@axios) March 13, 2018
UPDATE (TRS): Tillerson learned of his ouster via Trump’s tweet!
Senior US State Dept. officials tell @mitchellreports that Sec. Tillerson learned of his firing via the president's tweet. https://t.co/Sz9jEH7OLt
— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 13, 2018
Well I guess he wouldn’t be the first…