Trump sacks Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson after a series of public rifts over issues including North Korea and Russia, replacing his him with loyalist CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

Trump made the announcement on Twitter on Tuesday as this happens to be his government's biggest Cabinet shakeup since he took office more than a year ago.

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

Tillerson’s departure caps months of tensions between Trump and the 65-year-old former Exxon Mobil chief executive and comes as the administration prepares for an unprecedented meeting with the leader of North Korea.

On Monday Tillerson blamed Russia for the poisonings in England of a former Russian double agent and his daughter. Earlier, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders refrained from saying Moscow was responsible.

Tillerson was reported to have privately called Trump a “moron” in July after the president suggested a 10-fold increase in the US nuclear arsenal. Tillerson declined to directly address whether he had made the comment, although a State Department spokeswoman later issued a denial.

A senior White House official said Trump asked Tillerson to step down on Friday but did not want to make it public while he was on a trip to Africa. Trump’s announcement came only a few hours after Tillerson landed in Washington after a trip that had been cut short.

The official said Trump works well with Pompeo, a former Republican congressman from Kansas, and wanted him in place before the US president’s planned talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and trade negotiations.

Tillerson had no diplomatic or political experience before becoming secretary of state. He appeared out of the loop last week when Trump announced he would meet with North Korea’s Kim.