Big news this afternoon…
US President Donald Trump has sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, replacing him with the director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo.
Trump took to Twitter to thank Tillerson for his service, while announcing Pompeo’s appointment. He also nominated Gina Haspel to become the first female director of the CIA.
Tillerson, a former chief executive of ExxonMobil, was only appointed to the post in February of 2017.
State Department Under Secretary Steve Goldstein said to CBS News on Thursday morning that Tillerson had not spoken to Trump and found out about the sacking when the public did.
“The Secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security. He will miss his colleagues at the the Department of State and the foreign ministers he has worked with throughout the world.”
Tensions had been running high between the pair for a long time with Trump publicly undercutting Tillerson by tweeting that he was “wasting his time” trying to negotiate with nuclear-armed North Korea.
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