U.S.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he had replaced Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson with Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike
Pompeo, ousting the embattled top diplomat after a series of public
rifts.
Trump
announced the Cabinet shakeup on Twitter and said he had tapped the
CIA's deputy director, Gina Haspel, to replace Pompeo at the
intelligence agency.
Tillerson's
departure represents the biggest staff change in the Trump Cabinet so
far and caps months of tensions between the Republican president and the
65-year-old former Exxon Mobil chief executive.
A
senior White House official said Trump asked Tillerson to step down on
Friday but did want not to announce it while he was on a trip to Africa.
The
official said Trump works well with Pompeo, a former congressman from
Kansas who is seen as a loyalist within the administration, and wanted
him in place before the U.S. president's planned talks with North Korean
leader Kim Jong Un and trade negotiations.
U.S.
stock index futures pared their gains and the dollar also trimmed gains
versus the yen while extending losses versus the euro amid the news.
Trump
and Tillerson, who had no diplomatic or political experience before
becoming secretary of state, have diverged on policy numerous times,
including over North Korea and Russia. On Monday, Tillerson sharply
criticized Russia over the poisonings in England of a former spy and his
daughter, directly blaming Moscow after White House press secretary
Sarah Sanders stopped short of doing so.
Tillerson
also appeared out of the loop last week when Trump announced he would
meet with North Korea's leader and become the first sitting U.S.
president to do so.
"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!" Trump said on Twitter.
Reuters
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