US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been fired by the US President Donald Trump. Tillerson’s unceremonious dismissal, via micro-blogging site Twitter, has added to the list of senior officials who were either let go or stepped down under Trump’s administration. CIA Director Mike Pompeo has been named the new Secretary of State.
As Pompeo’s replacement, Trump announced the appointment of Gina Haspel, who will be the CIA’s first female director. The Department of State confirmed that Tillerson was completely unaware that he was fired and was also unsure of the reason behind it. Trump told the media on Tuesday, there was a growing gap between him and Tillerson that came down to a personal level.
Tillerson’s term will get over on 31st March and after that according to his media statement, he would ‘return to private life as a private citizen’. Trump said: “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 thought it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently, so we were not really thinking the same.
“With Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think it’s going to go very well.” Under Secretary Steve Goldstein said: “The Secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security.”