The
White House has developed a plan to oust US Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson, whose relationship with President Donald Trump has been
tense, and replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, according to a
new report.
White
House Chief of Staff John Kelly developed the transition plan and has
discussed it with other officials, The New York Times reported
Thursday, citing senior Trump administration officials who insisted
on anonymity.
Under
Kelly’s plan, Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, would
replace Pompeo at the CIA. The shake-up would happen around the end
of the year or shortly afterward, the newspaper said.
The
Senate confirmed Tillerson, 65, as secretary of state in early
February. He had previously been the CEO of ExxonMobil, one the
largest oil and gas companies in the world.
It
was not immediately clear whether Trump has given final approval to
the plan, but he has been said to have been at odds with Tillerson
over a host of major foreign policy issues.
Tillerson’s
departure has been widely anticipated for months, but associates have
said he planned to remain until the end of the year. Even so, an
end-of-year exit would make his time in office the shortest of any
secretary of state in nearly 120 years.
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