MAJOR NEWS – TILLERSON OUT – AT 9:41 A.M. ET:  President Trump has discharged (read fired, decapitated, shafted) Rex Tillerson as secretary of state and replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, the appointment subject to Senate confirmation.

The president, speaking with reporters a short time ago, was forthright in saying there were simply areas of disagreement between him and Tillerson.  Nothing personal, as they say.  There is no reason to doubt the president's words.  We've been hearing this for months.

Nor is it uncommon for presidents to wish to make changes in their initial Cabinets and in high White House positions.  Often, a new president doesn't actually know his appointees personally, but knows of them by reputation and recommendation. 

Mike Pompeo is an outstanding choice for State.  He graduated first in his class in 1986 from the United States Military Academy at West Point, and later graduated from the Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review.  He is considered an intellectual heavyweight.  As a Republican congressman from Kansas, the post he held before becoming CIA director, he was a GOP spokesman on foreign- and defense policy.

Replacing Pompeo as head of the CIA, will be, subject to Senate Confirmation, Deputy Director Gina Haspel.  She will, if confirmed, be the first woman to hold the job.  Her confirmation may be difficult, or at least controversial.  As a CIA operative, she was involved in "enhanced interrogation techniques," which some consider torture.  CBS reports that she "ran a CIA prison in Thailand where terror suspects were waterboarded — a harsh interrogation technique President Donald Trump has supported."

On the other hand, she is considered an outstanding intelligence officer.  From her official CIA public resumé:  "Ms. Haspel is a career intelligence officer, having joined the CIA in 1985. She has extensive overseas experience and served as Chief of Station in several of her assignments. In Washington, she has held numerous senior leadership positions, including as Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service, Deputy Director of the National Clandestine Service for Foreign Intelligence and Covert Action, and Chief of Staff for the Director of the National Clandestine Service.

"Ms. Haspel is the recipient of numerous awards including the George H. W. Bush Award for excellence in counterterrorism; the Donovan Award; the Intelligence Medal of Merit; and the Presidential Rank Award, the most prestigious award in the federal civil service."

We'll have more on these developments as facts come out.  And don't be shocked if this series of changes expands to include others in the administration.

March 13,  2018