President Trump Explains Why He REALLY Fired Rex Tillerson

The big news of the day? Rex Tillerson is OUT as secretary of state. Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, is replacing him, and Gina Haspel will take Pompeo’s place as the new CIA director.

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!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018

Still with me?

The big question is why. Why did Trump finally ditch Tillerson? To be fair, we’ve known that there’s been trouble in paradise for quite some time. Anyone remember that whole “moron” fiasco?  And remember how Trump kinda-but-not-really joked that they should both take an IQ test? Heck, there were rumblings about Trump planning to oust Tillerson back in November. The original report stated that Trump would replace him with CIA director Mike Pompeo. The report also said Sen. Tom Cotton would replace Pompeo, but that part obviously didn’t happen.

This entire thing gets weirder. According to NBC, Tillerson didn’t even know WHY Trump was firing him.

BREAKING: US State Dept. says that Tillerson "did not speak to the President and is unaware of the reason" for his ouster, "but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling." – @Abs_NBC

— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 13, 2018

Tillerson "had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security. He will miss his colleagues at the the Department of State and the foreign ministers he has worked with throughout the world," US State Dept. says.

— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 13, 2018

Oh. And he supposedly learned of his termination at the same time as the rest of us…through that tweet.

Senior US State Dept. officials tell @mitchellreports that Sec. Tillerson learned of his firing via the president's tweet. https://t.co/Sz9jEH7OLt

— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 13, 2018

It sounds like he was blindsided, but it’s such a hard thing to believe because THERE WERE SO MANY SIGNS. Plus, President Trump just admitted that they’ve been discussing this for quite some time so…what gives?

President Trump praises nominee to replace Rex Tillerson, Mike Pompeo: "we're always on the same wavelength."

"Rex and I have been talking about this for a long time, we got along actually quite well, but we disagreed on things." pic.twitter.com/4U1m8AbovQ

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 13, 2018

He said Tillerson is a “good man,” so it doesn’t sound like this was some huge blowout. They’ve been discussing this here and there for quite some time. Tillerson KNEW they weren’t seeing eye to eye on certain policies. That’s all there is to it. I guess he just didn’t realize that Trump would make this decision RIGHT NOW without giving him some kind of warning.

Trump on Tillerson: "I didn't discuss it very much with him, honestly" pic.twitter.com/oAl4mGL00E

— Axios (@axios) March 13, 2018

Weird. *shrugs*