President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday he made the decision to fire Secretary of State Rex Tillerson alone and noted several differences with him as the decision.
“We got along actually quite well but we disagreed on things. When you look at the Iran deal, I think it’s terrible. I guess he felt it was okay. I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently. So we were not really thinking the same,” adding that he had a different “mindset” from Tillerson.
A state department spokesman noted that Trump never called Tillerson to inform him he would be fired and that he remains unaware of the reason.
Remarkable statement from State Department spokesman on Tillerson firing: pic.twitter.com/iBpLaK1tXw
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) March 13, 2018
“I think Rex will be much happier now,” Trump continued, stressing that he now believes CIA Director Mike Pompeo will be successful in his role. “I am proud to nominate the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State,” the president said in a Tuesday statement.