The White House is set to sack current Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson and replace him with C.I.A. Director Mike Pompeo, senior administration officials said Thursday.
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Arkansas Republican Senator, Tom Cotton, will replace Pompeo at the C.I.A.
Questioned by a journalist about the move while visiting the crown prince of Bahrain, U.S. President Donald Trump said simply: "He's here. Rex is here."
Trump and Tillerson have butted heads over the past year on everything from the Iran nuclear deal to confrontations with North Korea. Their clashes culminated in the secretary of state calling Trump a "moron." In return, Trump chastised Tillerson publicly, saying he was "wasting his time" attempting diplomacy with North Korea.
If Tillerson – who spent four decades at Exxon Mobile – is ultimately dismissed from his current post, it would mark the shortest tenure of any secretary of state in nearly 120 years.