President Trump announced that Rex Tillerson is leaving the State Department in a tweet Tuesday morning, and said Tillerson would be replaced by CIA Director Mike Pompeo.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/973540316656623616
Trump thanked Tillerson for his service, and announced Gina Haspel will become the new CIA director, the first woman to hold that position, when Pompeo leaves. “He will do a fantastic job!” Trump said.
The announcement came as a surprise to many, including State Department officials who have claimed that Tillerson found out he was canned from Trump’s tweet.
I am told Tillerson found out he was fired from Trump’s tweet.
This morning. Knew there was tension but was not going to quit and did not know he was fired— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) March 13, 2018
From @eliselabottcnn: "Rex Tillerson found out that he was fired from the tweet from President Trump on Tuesday, according to Steve Goldstein, Undersecretary for public diplomacy"
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 13, 2018
Tensions between Trump and Tillerson have reportedly been high for quite some time. Tillerson reportedly threatened to resign in October.