President Trump announced in a tweet that he has fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, marking yet another member of his cabinet whose tenure has ended abruptly.
The announcement was made early Tuesday, which Tillerson finding out about the move after a top aide showed him a tweet from President Trump letting everyone know about the change, according to a senior State Department official.
Although Tillerson was unsure of what was coming, White House chief of staff John F. Kelly called him Friday to tell him to cut short a trip to Africa, letting him know “you may get a tweet.” He will be replaced with Mike Pompeo, CIA director and former Tea Party congressman, according to Trump.
The president and Tillerson never saw eye-to-eye throughout the former Secretary of State’s tenure, including an instance when he broke publicly with the POTUS on issues such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar to the U.S. response to Russia’s cyber aggression.
“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!” tweeted President Trump.
It is believed that President Trump made the move in order to gear up for his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un with someone he gets along with.
