- President Donald Trump announced Tuesday he has fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
- Trump intends to replace Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
- Pompeo will be replaced with CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel.
President Donald Trump will replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, he tweeted Tuesday morning.
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
Tillerson’s ouster was reported minutes before Trump’s tweet by the Washington Post, though tensions between the two have simmered nearly since Tillerson took the job in 2017. The secretary of state was reportedly asked Friday to return to Washington and informed he would be let go by Trump.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
“I am proud to nominate the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State,” the president told The Washington Post in a statement. “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.”
He continued, “Finally, I want to thank Rex Tillerson for his service. A great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well.” (RELATED: Trump Explains Why He Fired Tillerson)
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Trump will replace Pompeo with deputy CIA director Gina Haspel noting in his statement, “Gina Haspel, the Deputy Director of the CIA, will be nominated to replace Director Pompeo and she will be the CIA’s first-ever female director, a historic milestone.”