Trump fires Tillerson as Secretary of State; CIA chief Pompeo to replace him
CIA’S DEPUTY DIRECTOR GINA HASPEL TO BECOME AGENCY’S FIRST WOMAN CHIEF
WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday after a series of public rifts over issues including North Korea and Russia, replacing his chief diplomat with loyalist CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
The most significant shakeup of Trump’s Cabinet since he took office more than a year ago, which the president announced on Twitter, comes as the administration prepares for an unprecedented meeting with the leader of North Korea.
Trump tapped the CIA’S deputy director, Gina Haspel, to replace Pompeo at the intelligence agency.
Tillerson’s departure caps months of tensions between the Republican president and the 65-yearold former Exxon Mobil chief executive.
On Monday Tillerson blamed Russia for the poisonings in England of a former Russian double agent and his daughter. Earlier, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders refrained from saying Moscow was responsible.
Tillerson was reported to have privately called Trump a“moron” in July after the president suggested a 10-fold increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Tillerson declined to directly address whether he had commented, although a State Department spokeswoman later issued a denial.
A senior White House official said Trump asked Tillerson to step down on Friday but did not want to make it public while he was on a trip to Africa. Trump’s announcement came only a few hours after Tillerson landed in Washington after a trip that had been cut short. The official said Trump works well with Pompeo, a former Republican congressman from Kansas, and wanted him in place before the U.S. president’s planned talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and trade negotiations.
“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!” Trump said on Twitter.
Tillerson joined a long list of senior officials who have either resigned or been fired since Trump took office in January 2017.
WASHINGTON: Gina Haspel, US President Donald Trump's nominee to become the first woman to lead the CIA, is a veteran, who once reportedly ran a secret prison in Thailand where terrorism suspects were allegedly subjected to harsh interrogation techniques like waterboarding.
In a surprise move, Trump announced on Tuesday that he was removing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replacing him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo and elevating Haspel, who was his deputy. The Senate must vote on 61-year-old Haspel's confirmation to succeed Pompeo. Haspel, who joined the CIA in 1985, earned highlevel awards during her career and was sworn in as deputy director of the CIA on February 7, 2017, among the first officials in the Trump administration.
In that post, she assisted managing intelligence collection, analysis, covert action and counterintelligence, and liaison relationships with foreign services, according to the Central Intelligence Agency's website.
Trump said in a statement that Haspel's appointment would be "a historic milestone."
He said she and Pompeo "have worked together for more than a year, and have developed a great mutual respect."
Before leaving the White House for California, Trump heaped more praise on Haspel: "Gina, by the way, who I know very well, who I've worked very closely with, will be the first woman director of the CIA," he said. "She's an outstanding person," the US president commented.
“She's an outstanding person,” the US president commented.
Haspel said in a statement that after 30 years at CIA, it was an honour to serve with Pompeo during the past year. “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,” she said.