This is the biggest cabinet shakeup yet for the Trump administration and we are betting this didn’t end well. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is out. Donald Trump says CIA Director Mike Pompeo will replace him. But first, he will have to be confirmed. The Washington Post reports, “Trump last Friday asked Tillerson to step aside, and the embattled top diplomat cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington.”
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018
BREAKING: Trump ousts Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, will replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo https://t.co/akCUb2ExE2
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 13, 2018
Yesterday, Tillerson told reporters Russia was “clearly” behind the poisoning of a former spy in the U.K.
“There is never a justification for this type of attack — the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation — and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior.”
Donald Trump has yet to comment on the attack in Britain.
It was just over three months ago when Trump tweeted his support of Tillerson:
The media has been speculating that I fired Rex Tillerson or that he would be leaving soon – FAKE NEWS! He’s not leaving and while we disagree on certain subjects, (I call the final shots) we work well together and America is highly respected again!https://t.co/FrqiPLFJ1E
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 1, 2017
Who is Gina Haspel, the nominee to run the CIA? She was allegedly involved in running one of the CIA’s “black sites” where detainees were tortured, and was, according to The Intercept, “centrally involved in the worst abuses of the CIA’s Bush-era torture regime.”