Trump Ousts Secretary Of State Rex Tillerson | HuffPost Latest News

WASHINGTON Rex Tillerson is out as secretary of state after just 14 months on the job.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday tweeted that he is replacing Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, minutes after The Washington Post first reported that he had ousted Tillerson on Friday . Addressing reporters at the State Department Tuesday afternoon, a sullen Tillerson said that Trump had called him at noon, more than three hours after the presidents tweet.

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","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Donald J. Trump","author_url":"https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump","cache_age":86400,"description":"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\n\n","provider_name":"Twitter","title":"Donald J. 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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

The White House said Trump asked Tillerson to step down on Friday so the president could have a new team in place for an upcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

But a State Department spokesman told CNN that Tillerson found out about his firing when Trump announced it on Twitter on Tuesday.

According to a statement that followed Trumps announcement, Tillerson had every intention of staying, the State Department said. The Secretary did not speak to the President and is unaware of the reason.

The State Department official who contradicted the White House on Tillersons firing was also fired, The Associated Press reported.

Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he made that decision by myself to remove Tillerson, and noted that Rex, as you know, was not in this country at the time. He alluded to their disagreements, saying, we were not thinking the same, and predicted, Rex will be happier now.

Tillerson cut short a trip to Africa, returning to Washington Monday night. Reporters traveling with him said that they had no idea the secretary of state had been fired on Friday.

We got off the plane with Tillerson less than four hours ago. There was zero indication on flight home that this was imminent.

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We got off the plane with Tillerson less than four hours ago. There was zero indication on flight home that this was imminent.
Josh Lederman (@joshledermanAP) March 13, 2018

Trump announced that he plans to nominate Gina Haspel, now deputy CIA director, to replace Pompeo as head of the spy agency.

Most of Trumps statement focused on Pompeo. He mentioned Tillerson at the end.

A great deal has been accomplished over the last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well, Trump said.

Notably missing from initial Trump administration statements on the secretary of state was anything from Tillerson himself. The ousted secretary of state didnt make his own statement until Tuesday afternoon, when he announced at the State Department that he would officially exit on March 31.

Other than noting his phone call with the president, Tillerson did not mention or thank Trump in his remarks.

Just a day ago, Tillerson made a statement holding Russia responsible for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain, putting him at odds with the White House, which did not single out Russia .

Tillersons departure comes amid reports of his disappointment with the turbulent atmosphere in Trumps White House, as well as mounting criticism of his performance as the countrys leading diplomat and his drastic reduction of civil servant positions at the State Department.

His job security had always seemed precarious, but on Nov. 30, The New York Times reported that the White House was considering forcing out Tillerson and replacing him with Pompeo.

The White House and State Department pushed back on the report , but that day, neither Trump nor White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders would definitively say whether the president had confidence in Tillerson.

Hes here. Rex is here, Trump told reporters.

When the president loses confidence in somebody, theyll no longer be here, Sanders said at that days White House press briefing.

Trump and Tillersons relationship has long been filled with tension. Tillerson reportedly considered resigning after Trumps widely criticized speech to the Boy Scouts of America in July.

On Oct. 4, NBC News reported that Tillerson called Trump a moron during a meeting with top officials over the summer.