Fires Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by tweet

Trump tweeted that Mike Pompeo would replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson; State Department officials said Tillerson learned of his firing from the tweet. The ouster followed months of public undercutting (e.g., telling him he was “wasting his time” on North Korea) and left key diplomatic posts unfilled during multiple crises.

“With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think it’s going to go very well.” — Twitter, March 13, 2018 Quote verified against source