The New York Times reports Rex Tillerson Out as Trump’s Secretary of State, Replaced by Mike Pompeo.
President Trump on Tuesday ousted his secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, extending a shake-up of his administration, 14 months into his tumultuous presidency, and potentially transforming the nation’s economic and foreign policy.
Mr. Trump announced he would replace Mr. Tillerson with Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director and former Tea Party congressman, who forged a close relationship with the president and is viewed as being more in sync with Mr. Trump’s America First credo.
Mr. Tillerson learned he had been fired on Tuesday morning when a top aide showed him a tweet from Mr. Trump announcing the change, according to a senior State Department official.
Tweet Announcement
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
Trump did not even have the decency to tell Tillerson to his face.
Warmongers In
In case you are wondering why Rex Tillerson had to be replaced with Mike Pompeo of all people: Iran.
Tillerson was too sane for a catastrophic and absolutely unnecessary Iran war.
Pompeo, on the other hand, has been waiting for this opportunity for decades.— Amir (@AmirAminiMD) March 13, 2018
CIA Torture
The new CIA director was a key part of the torture program and its illegal cover-up. Her name was on the Top Secret order demanding the destruction of tapes to prevent them being seen by Congress. Incredible. https://t.co/HjVHCPCbpo https://t.co/VamIGa1A8w
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) March 13, 2018
Greenwald
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/973580888176029697
Deep State
No ‘deep state’ at CIA is like:
No ‘mass surveillance’ in America
No ‘torture’ at CIA black sites
No ‘misinformation’ of the public
No ‘drug experiments’ on soldiers
No ‘droning’ of innocent civilians
No ‘lying’ to Congress & Senate
No ‘assassination’ of JFK
No ‘profit’ in war https://t.co/j4GnRVPCt4— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) March 13, 2018
Krugman
On one side, he was surely the worst Secretary of State since William Jennings Bryan. On the other, he was surely fired not for his failings but for his occasional lapses into principle https://t.co/jmzrGudr3Q
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) March 13, 2018
Actually, Hillary was the worst secretary of state ever. Libya alone offers sufficient evidence. Also consider security violations for which Hillary ought to be in prison. That said, the rest of Krugman’s claim has reasonable merit.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
This is what America voted for so don’t be surprised. Trade wars followed by actual wars. MAGA!
Oh, man 😊
The upside to Trump making the usual Washington idiocy even more in your face, at least if we’re lucky, is that perhaps a few of the pliable, uncritical, well indoctrinated yahoos designated as simple cheering drones, may just finally realize that there really isn’t one single benefit from having the current US government, vs the current Somali one. Not one single one. Not In any, even theoretically possible, way. It’s pure retardsville, without one single redeeming feature whatsoever.
Oh well if the standard of living of the average Joe should plummet to a level shared by India, then it’s probably all for the best. The culture has become far to decadent in any case.
We are all made very rich by our absurdly overvalued capital. That IS the wealth effect. That IS what separates the first world from the third world. Does anyone realize that once we lose the premium that’s paid on our capital, we will actually have to take the default share of the world’s poverty like everyone else?
Apparently nobody understands that. They think the US is rich because of higher productivity or because of silicon valley. Morons. The world is populated by morons, I’m surrounded by dogs.
-“Kapital Akountz R Bad, Kurrent Akkountz R Gud.”
Wow, I thought it was all the usual news media hype, but it looks like Trump really does want a full blown trade war with China. I guess the Fed will get the inflation they want after all, cost-push, whilst Mish’s prophecy of asset-deflation is fulfilled with one hell of a bang. China owns enough in the way of US financial assets to send the nation back to the dark ages if they feel so inclined. They’ll be the first to dump stocks, bonds and dollars at the first sign of a market crash in any case.
What I can’t understand is what possesses Trump to believe that any of this is a good idea? What the hell goes through these peoples minds?
-“Importz R Bad: Exportz R Gud.”
link to wolfstreet.com
Trump is planning for war. It’s unavoidable as China is rising so, like Trump talked about NK in 1999 on “Meet The Press”, Trump feels China needs to be dealt with earlier rather than later. The problem for the US is Russia.
People voted for Trump because it was the known vs the unknown and the odds were that at worst he’d be as bad for the US as Hilary. He was also seen as a reset of govt power away from the Neos. At best, you get a great President and at worst, a one-and-done.
I think of him as a symptom, not a cause. There’s a reason so many voters went for an obviously narcissistic megalomaniac with no political experience. We get the government we deserve…every single election.
Excellent comment and I was sitting on something similar for an upcoming post
I know, the hiring and firing process has become progressively less formal, but should I expect to be fired by twitter from now on? On another note, I am sure that Netanyahu’s visit has nothing to do with this, because absolutely nobody interferes with US politics, nobody.
This is all bout trade and tariffs and CHINA!Trump wants to crush china the way reagen crushed the soviets
Is was it is: alternatif de Coup d’état… “The working class is confronted with an extraordinary political situation. On the one hand, the Republican Trump administration has more military generals in top posts than any other previous government. On the other hand, the Democratic Party has opened its doors to a ‘friendly takeover’ by the intelligence agencies.” Selected paragraph from “The CIA takeover of the Democratic Party” link to wsws.org
Re. Clinton, I doubt there was a serious intelligence agency in the whole world that did not read her emails.
Tillerson almost certainly knew of Trump’s intention and timing, reportedly from a telephone call last Friday from Trump’s chief of staff, hence he cut short his Africa trip.