President Donald Trump on Tuesday, March 13, fired the US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson and replaced him with Mike Pompeo, the director of the CIA.
A report by Times speculates that it wasn’t the disagreement over moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, the wisdom of direct talks with North Korea or the very clear split with President Trump over Russia’s aggression that caused Tillerson his job.
Our source however gathered from the report that calling Trump a “moron” last year coupled with the broader personality clash the utterance represented was the reason why Tillerson was fired.
Republican officials allegedly said that firing Tillerson may be the beginning of broader purge in Trump’s administration.
The officials reportedly said that Trump is tired of listening to advisers who have tried to moderate his style and would start doing things according to his style.
A Republican official who spoke on anonymity reportedly said: “It’s no secret the president is not a patient man. Now, he’s really out of patience and will be doing things his way.
“The President tried it their way and didn’t like what he was seeing. Now, he’s going to try it his way.”
Tillerson was reportedly caught by surprise as he allegedly learned about the sack only when an aide showed him the Twitter post. His aides said the secretary did not know why he had been fired before Trump tweeted the news.
However, in a video released after the sack, President Trump said he and Tillerson disagreed on a lot of things.
He particularly mentioned the clash between him and the former secretary on the Iran deal. Trump spoke of his desire to break the deal, but noted that Tillerson “felt a little bit differently, so we were not really thinking the same.”
Trump clashed with Tillerson repeatedly on foreign policy, often challenging the man he lured away from ExxonMobil to be America’s envoy to the world.
Tillerson, for his part, did the same, often contradicting Trump’s White House. Foreign diplomats were sometimes unsure if Tillerson was speaking on behalf of the United States or not.
The recent instance was when asked if Russia was responsible for the poisoning of a former spy. Tillerson put the blame on Russia.
However, Trump said it could have been Russia or someone else, and White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to assign blame.
President Trump saw Tillerson as too cautious. Tillerson saw Trump as woefully unprepared for his diplomatic efforts and, in a famous moment of private candour, called Trump a “moron.”
Consequently, Trump ordered Tillerson to make a public statement denying it; Tillerson made a statement but did not deny the insult.
At the close of business on Tuesday, March 13, Tillerson said he planned to hand over his power to his deputy while the department waits for Pompeo to win confirmation in the Senate.
He said he would maintain his commission until the end of March.
Tillerson arrived Abuja for his first official visit to Nigeria on Monday, March 12.
Tillerson had visited Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Chad.
Nigeria was his last stop on his five-country tour of Africa. His arrival was disclosed in a tweet by the US mission in Nigeria.
Tillerson’s Africa trip thus happened to be his last official assignment as the US Secretary of State.
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