Trump ousts Tillerson, will replace him as secretary of state with CIA chief Pompeo
Trump ousts Tillerson, will replace him as secretary of state with CIA chief Pompeo
President Trump has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, orchestrating a major change to his national security team amid delicate negotiations with North Korea, White House officials said Tuesday.
Trump last Friday asked Tillerson to step aside, and the embattled top diplomat cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington.
Pompeo will replace him at the State Department, and Gina Hapsel — the deputy director at the CIA — will succeed him at the CIA, becoming the first woman to run the spy agency, if confirmed.
In a statement issued to The Washington Post, Trump praised both Pompeo and Haspel.
“I am proud to nominate the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State,” Trump said. “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.”
The president continued, “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. Mike and Gina have worked together for more than a year, and have developed a great mutual respect.”
Trump also had words of praise for Tillerson: “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.”
The president — who has long clashed will Tillerson, who he believes is “too establishment” in his thinking — felt it was important to make the change now, as he prepares for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as well as upcoming trade negotiations, three White House officials said.
“I am deeply grateful to President Trump for permitting me to serve as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and for this opportunity to serve as Secretary of State,” Pompeo said in a statement. “His leadership has made America safer and I look forward to representing him and the American people to the rest of the world to further America’s prosperity. Serving alongside the great men and women of the CIA, the most dedicated and talented public servants I have encountered, has been one of the great honors of my life.”
Haspel in a statement also said she was excited for her promotion.
“After 30 years as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, it has been my honor to serve as its Deputy Director alongside Mike Pompeo for the past year,” she said. “I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.”
I guess being honest by pointing out Trump is a "Moron" was too much truth for The King of Vulgaria...
Another brilliant tactical move by Teflon Don.
I don't think so...
It's beyond sad that even his supporters give him mobster nick names, but accurate. This is the most corrupt administration in the history of the United States surpassing even the Nixon white house. Trump is indeed nothing but a two bit mobster bullying people to get what he wants because he has zero experience at governing.
Um, how? Why hire him in the first place?
Trump supporters imagine him playing 3 dimensional chess but the reality is he's playing tic-tac-toe with himself...
Do "Trump supporters" even know what 3 dimensional chess is ?
Fair point. I wouldn't doubt they think it must be a game played with four crossed lines and some "X's" and "O's". Anything more complicated than that goes over their heads.
They're still struggling to master checkers.
The world is much more complicated the even 3 dimensional chess. Dealing with foreign policy alone is like dealing with hundreds of floating parts all over the surface of the world that are all moving all of the time and the movement of each can affect the movement of every other one. If you make a deal with one, which you must to make your position stronger, you must make sure it only affects the movement of friends of yours positively because it will affect the movement of every other one all at once including ones on the other side of the world that you had no idea it would. However it might also accidentally affect the position of the enemy of one of your's friend's enemy who doing it because of something your friend has to do and they start attacking your friend for something you did in making your position strong with another nation and by this point Donald Trump's attention span has long passed he'll give up and do something completely unrelated.
BTW, my wife and I can NOT be the only [people who when we see Trump looking down like he does a lot like in the picture above and like he does when address crowds that he bares an amazing resemblance to Il Duce. I mean the turning of the head, face suddenly up in the air, looking down his nose, the strut away from the microphone for a second, when he is giving a speech and is particularly satisfied with something he just said. He has been watching WWII movies. He IS Mussolini!
It will be interesting to read what Tillerson has to say about the utter disfunction of Trump's White House...
That's 2 this week.....also President Donald Trump’s personal assistant, John McEntee, was escorted out of the White House on Monday, two senior administration officials said. The cause of the firing was an unspecified security issue, said a third White House official with knowledge of the situation.
And deporables see nothing wrong with the way this WH admin functions....sad, really sad.
This isn't a presidency, this is a farce and it's sad that this is the new normal for the President of the United States.
Napoleon had it right: 'Never interrupt an enemy when he is making a mistake.' So carry on, Donald. Keep stepping in your own shit.
Regarding Trump lifting off and Napoleon's exile I have this one word to offer in comfort, Elba...
Not unlike The King of Vulgaria the Emperor of France had yuge hangups about his tiny...hands.
Sadly his followers are so stupid they keep buying his lame excuses. They actually believe that shit even they smell is just fertilizer to grow jobs and the economy. Putin could release the pee tape and the Trump supporters will just claim there's nothing wrong with having underage Russian prostitutes pee on you. They've moved the goal posts so often no one even remembers where they are anymore, they're just ignorantly screaming "Touchdown!" every time Trump makes another stupid decision or major gaff.
no shortage of fertilizer in the proximity of Trump
I would be so happy if I were Tillerson, working with Trump must be a nightmare. Of course, I probably would have quit months ago.
I expect Tillerson has already been offered a YUGE book deal. I think is should be an interesting read...
Tillerson is out. Trump said he ( Tillerson ) "Would be very happy." I assume Trump's comment is accurate. The further one gets away from Trump the better off they are.
Pompeo? Pompeo hitched himself on that 'Trump Train' early on. And now he can blow the train's whistle if the Trump allows. On the other hand, there is something about Pompeo that reeks of deceit and untrustworthiness.