This week in the Donald Trump cabinet count, another name will be added to the steady list of former appointees: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who Donald Trump announced would be leaving his position. The announcement was made via Twitter, as has become usual in this administration. Tillerson was in the role for a little over a year, during which his largest accomplishment was gutting the State Department: As Vox reports this morning, “Under Tillerson’s watch, 60 percent of State’s top-ranking career diplomats resigned and new applications to join the foreign service fell by half, according to a November count by the American Foreign Service Association.” CIA director Mike Pompeo will take over as Secretary of State. Trump focused on Pompeo in his announcement, only thanking Tillerson “for his service.” CIA deputy director Gina Haspel will take Pompeo’s place at the CIA.
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Tillerson had a tumultuous tenure in the Trump administration, clashing with the president on numerous issues (we’ve been wondering aloud if Tillerson would be ousted since December). The latest indication that he was on the outs with the president occurred last week, when Trump suddenly agreed to talks with North Korea, seemingly off the cuff and outside of Tillerson’s purview—and despite the fact that Trump once tweeted that “Rex” was “wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man.” (Tillerson reportedly, and infamously, called Trump a “fucking moron” after a meeting in July.)
After Hope Hicks’s recent resignation, Tillerson is the latest to leave an embattled administration (though “Hopey” certainly got a better send-off from her boss). Before that, senior official Rob Porter had to leave his position after allegations of physical and emotional abuse from two ex-wives, which the FBI had known about in vetting him for the White House, became public.
