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| Photo Courtesy Standard Digital: Rex Tillerson in Kenya |
The U.S Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been ousted by the U.S President Donald Trump. The President plans on replacing Tillerson with the CIA Director Mike Pompeo.Trump asked him to step aside. This cut short his visit to Kenya as he had to return to Washington DC immediately to address more "pressing matters". The tension between the president and his top diplomat has been growing for the past few months and reached breaking point last week when he finally asked Tillerson to step aside amid on going delicate negotiations with North Korea. This signifies a major change to the President's national security team at such a crucial time.
The reason for his firing still remains unclear. According to the spokesperson for the Secretary of state Rex Tillerson had no idea why he was fired.
The Director of the Criminal Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo will replace Rex Tillerson while the current deputy Director of the CIA ,Gina Haspel will succeed Mike Pompeo as Director of the CIA making her the first female to ever head the CIA since it was formed.
However the Trump nominees will still have to go through the Senate for confirmation.Tillerson felt that he was left out of the loop when President Trump aggreed to meet North Korea Leader .He had insisted on a diplomatic approach on the nuclear stand off between the U.S and North Korea.Pompeo, who had developed a good rapport with the President of the US as the Director of the CIA has long been rumoured as Tillerson's replacement. Trump's latest move confirms this rumour.Tillersons removal had been wildly anticipated and even had a nickname "Rexit".This rumor had been made even stronger in November 2017 when NBC news reported that Tillerson had called Trump a "moron".
