On Tuesday, President Trump laid off Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, over concerns that he was not advancing Trump’s foreign relations agenda effectively enough – but is that the whole story?
Sources within the White House speak of several ongoing disagreements Tillerson had with the President on many crucial matters. According to President Trump, Tillerson was always on a different “wavelength.”
Strategy, and method of reopening diplomatic ties with North Korea, the plan to reform the nuclear deal with Iran, and newly announced trade tariffs are just three of matters that caused bad blood between the Secretary and the President over the past few months.
Many White House officials were in favor of the decision to fire Tillerson and expressed no remorse over his departure.
The bitterness increased after the intense argument over the right to fire Tillerson’s spokesperson, Steven Goldstein. Goldstein was accused of issuing a statement that contradicted the White House official account of Tillerson’s exit.
It may be the first of the many major high-profile changes predicted within the administration for the past few weeks.
“I’m really at a point where we’re getting very close to having the Cabinet and other things that I want,” President Trump said as he hinted on more changes on the way.
Chief of staff John Kelly, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, and even the National security adviser H.R. McMaster are some of the many officials who are expected to be on the President’s Naughty List.
“He needs to spend every day this week cleaning house so that the public and the press are so overwhelmed by the changes that there’s not enough time to absorb them all,” stated one of the Republican “That way, three weeks from now, it’s over, the Band-Aid is off and we’re back to focusing on the agenda.”
President Donald Trump has nominated CIA Director Mike Pompeo, as the next Secretary of State.