www.washingtonpost.com
President Trump has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and plans
to nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him as the nation’s top
diplomat, orchestrating a major change to his
national security team
amid delicate outreach such as possible talks with North Korea, White
House officials said Tuesday.
Trump last Friday asked Tillerson
to step aside, and the embattled diplomat cut short a trip to Africa on
Monday to return to Washington.
Tension between Trump and
Tillerson has simmered for many months, but the president and his top
diplomat reached a breaking point over the past week, officials said.
The
reason for the latest rift was unclear, but Trump and Tillerson have
often appeared at odds over policies such as the nuclear deal with Iran
and the tone of U.S. diplomacy. A spokesman for Tillerson said the
secretary of state “had every intention of staying” in his job and was
“unaware of the reason” for his firing.
Tillerson cut short his
trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington. “I felt like, look, I
just need to get back,” he told reporters aboard his plane home. The
White House, however, had told him the previous Friday that he would be
dismissed, according to two administration officials. The news was not
conveyed in person by Trump.
President Trump spoke March 13, after it
was announced he ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and planned to
tap CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him.
“We disagreed on things . . . the Iran deal,” Trump told reporters. “So we were not thinking the same. With Mike Pompeo, we have a similar thought process.”
Trump selected Gina Haspel — the deputy director at the CIA — to succeed Pompeo at the CIA. She would become the first woman to run the spy agency.
Both would need to be confirmed by the Senate at a time when the closely divided chamber has stalled on confirming dozens of Trump nominees.
In a statement issued to The Washington Post, Trump praised both Pompeo and Haspel.
“I
am proud to nominate the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency,
Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State,” Trump said. “Mike
graduated first in his class at West Point, served with distinction in
the U.S. Army, and graduated with Honors from Harvard Law School. He
went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives with a proven
record of working across the aisle.”
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson did not
directly respond to an Oct. 4 news report that he referred to President
Trump as a “moron."
The president continued: “Gina Haspel, the Deputy
Director of the CIA, will be nominated to replace Director Pompeo and
she will be the CIA’s first-ever female director, a historic milestone.
Mike and Gina have worked together for more than a year, and have
developed a great mutual respect.”
Trump
also had words of praise for Tillerson: “Finally, I want to thank Rex
Tillerson for his service. A great deal has been accomplished over the
last fourteen months, and I wish him and his family well.”
A spokesman for Tillerson said the secretary of state has not spoken directly with Trump about the move.
“The
secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical
progress made in national security and other areas,” Steve Goldstein,
undersecretary of public diplomacy for the State Department, said in a
statement.
“He will miss his colleagues greatly at the
Department of State, and the foreign ministers he’s worked with
throughout the world,” Goldstein continued. “The secretary did not speak
to the president, and is unaware of the reason. He is grateful for the
opportunity to serve, and believes strongly that public service is a
noble calling.”
The president has long clashed with Tillerson,
who he believes is “too establishment” in his thinking. Trump felt it
was important to make the change now, as he prepares for possible
high-stakes talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as well as
upcoming trade negotiations, three White House officials said.
“I
am deeply grateful to President Trump for permitting me to serve as
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and for this opportunity to
serve as Secretary of State,” Pompeo said in a statement. “His
leadership has made America safer and I look forward to representing him
and the American people to the rest of the world to further America’s
prosperity. Serving alongside the great men and women of the CIA, the
most dedicated and talented public servants I have encountered, has been
one of the great honors of my life.”
Haspel said in a statement that she was excited about her promotion.
“After
30 years as an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, it has been
my honor to serve as its Deputy Director alongside Mike Pompeo for the
past year,” she said. “I am grateful to President Trump for the
opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be
the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.”
On the flight from Nigeria, Tillerson appeared to break
with the White House in his assessment of the poisoning of a former
Russian spy in Britain. He singled out Russia as responsible for the
attack, echoing the finger-pointing of the British government.
“It
came from Russia,” Tillerson said, according to the Associated Press.
“I cannot understand why anyone would take such an action. But this is a
substance that is known to us and does not exist widely.”
Earlier
Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders condemned
the attack as “reckless, indiscriminate and irresponsible,” and
expressed solidarity with Britain, but would not say whether the United
States believes Russia was behind it.
Tillerson was especially
frustrated when Trump last Thursday unilaterally agreed to the meeting
with Kim while Tillerson was traveling abroad in Africa, according to
officials familiar with his thinking.
Tillerson had long
expressed interest in a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff with
North Korea, and was upset to have been left totally out of the loop
when Trump decided to move forward, according to a White House official.
Foggy Bottom was also acutely aware — and chagrined — that when
Pompeo appeared on television shows this past Sunday to explain the
North Korea developments, he did not mention Tillerson.
Pompeo
long has been mentioned as Tillerson’s most likely replacement. As CIA
director, the former Republican lawmaker from Kansas developed a warm
relationship with Trump, often delivering the President’s Daily Brief to
Trump in person and racing over to the West Wing at a moment’s notice
to field the president’s queries on a range of topics.
Last November, the White House readied a plan
to replace Tillerson with Pompeo, and Trump seriously considered making
the move but was persuaded to keep the current team in place.
Pompeo
often is found in a host of meetings that do not necessarily deeply
involve his agency, simply because Trump likes him, said one White House
official.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) was initially mentioned as a
replacement for Pompeo, but Trump opted to promote from within by
elevating Haspel.
Tillerson’s exit had been so widely expected
that the rumors were given a nickname: Rexit. Speculation about his
ouster has come in waves, including in October after NBC News reported
that Tillerson had called Trump a “moron.”
Tillerson, 65, spent
his career at ExxonMobil, climbing the ranks at the oil giant to become
chief executive officer, where he cut deals across the Middle East and
in Mexico. Having never worked in government before being named
secretary of state, he struggled to adapt to Washington’s ways and the
administration’s culture of backstabbing.
Tillerson emerged as
one of the strongest voices in the administration critical of Russia.
For months, he has been saying Russia clearly meddled in the 2016 U.S.
election, even as Trump shied away from any critical remarks.
Trump
seemed to resent pressure to stay the course on such issues as China’s
trade practices, the war in Afghanistan and the Iran nuclear deal, those
people said.
Tillerson
pushed Trump to preserve the Iran nuclear deal, at least for now, with a
July pronouncement that Iran was meeting its end of the bargain. Trump
said in a Wall Street Journal interview that he regretted making that
determination and strongly suggested he would not go along with another
such certification of compliance due in October.
Although
Tillerson supported the approach to the war in Afghanistan that Trump
announced last week, he felt no need to frame U.S. goals in the same
maximal terms as the commander in chief. Where Trump proclaimed on Aug.
21 that “our troops will fight to win,” Tillerson laid out a much more
modest agenda.
Josh Dawsey, John Hudson and Carol Morello contributed to this report.
No comments:
Post a Comment