Rex Tillerson with Buhari in Abuja, Nigeria on March 12th, 2018, a day before he was sacked by Trump. Source:State House, Nigeria
Trump sacks Tillerson over his ‘body language in Africa’
The United States Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, who stopped over in Nigeria and met with President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday before heading to has been sacked by President Donald Trump.
The Department of State said Mr Tillerson had not spoken to the president and was “unaware of the reason” for his firing.
Insider reports told New York Times that Trump was irritated by Tillerson’s ‘body language’ during his meeting with African leaders. But White House has not officially stated why Tillerson was sacked.
Tillerson has been replaced with the director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo.
Thanking Mr Tillerson for his service on Twitter, Mr Trump said the new state secretary would do “a fantastic job”.
Mr Tillerson, a former chief executive of ExxonMobil, was only appointed to the job just over a year ago.Under Secretary Steve Goldstein said: “The Secretary had every intention of staying because of the critical progress made in national security.”
Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, Mr Trump said his differences with Mr Tillerson came down to personal “chemistry”.
“We got along actually quite well, but we disagreed on things,” said the president.
“When you look at the Iran deal, I think it’s terrible. I guess he thought it was OK.
“I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently, so we were not really thinking the same.
“With Mike, Mike Pompeo, we have a very similar thought process. I think it’s going to go very well.
“Rex is a very good man I like Rex a lot.”
Reports say Trump quickly sourced on Tillerson’s replacement immediately he was displeased by Tillerson’s dealings during his visit to Africa.
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