Mike Pompeo will take his job ahead of talks with North Korea.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday morning that President Trump had fired long-embattled Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with CIA chief Mike Pompeo, who will require Senate confirmation to secure the job permanently.
The White House said that Trump made the decision last week, summoning Tillerson home from a trip to Africa. But the State Department denied that version of events, claiming that Tillerson was completely blindsided by Tuesday’s announcement. In a statement, a State Department official said that “The Secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security,” and that “The Secretary did not speak to the President and is unaware of the reason” for the firing.
Speaking to reporters, President Trump said he had made the decision to fire Tillerson himself, citing differences on the Iran nuclear deal as one area of discord between him and Tillerson. He added that he’s “getting very close to having the cabinet and other things that I want.”
“I think Rex will be much happier now,” he said of the now-former Secretary of State.
Gina Haspel, the deputy director of the CIA, will replace Pompeo if confirmed by the Senate, becoming the first female director of that agency. Haspel played a prominent role in the Bush-era extraordinary rendition program, which involved torturing suspected terrorism suspects at foreign “black sites.
