The White House Denies Rumors of Replacing Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State
President Donald J. Trump's administration is denying reports that Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson will soon be replaced.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders confirmed that Tillerson will continue to fulfill his duties as Secretary of State, BBC reports. Sanders' statement was supported by a fellow spokeswoman from the state department, saying that the reports are fake.
"As the president just said: 'Rex is here,'" Sanders confirmed.
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The White House is dismissing reports coming from multiple news agencies saying that there are plans of replacing Tillerson because of his disagreements with the United States president over foreign policy issues.
Multiple news agencies who reported on plans to replace Tillerson have cited anonymous administration officials and said that the Secretary of State will then be fulfilled by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief Mike Pompeo.
One of the agencies that reported about Tillerson's replacement is the New York Times, which said that the shuffle in the White House will come in a few weeks.
If Pompeo replaces Tillerson, Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton is expected to become the new CIA chief.
However, even though there are already plans and discussions to take down Tillerson as Secretary of State — devised by White House chief of staff John F. Kelly — it appears that the president himself has not given the go signal yet.
But it won't come as a surprise if President Trump does give Tillerson's replacement the green light since he has already spoken ill of the state secretary in public on more than one occasion.
President Trump even shared a post on Twitter on how Tillerson was working on a failed approach with North Korea's Kim Jong-un.
"I told Rex Tillerson, our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man," the US President said.
President Trump has yet to confirm the news of Tillerson's ousting as Secretary of State.
