Rex Tillerson has been officially removed from his position as Secretary of State under the Trump administration. 

On March 13th, the President announced via Twitter that Mick Pompeo, Director of the CIA was to become the new Secretary of State, saying “he will do a fantastic job.” The new Director of the CIA is now Gina Haspel, the first woman to be chosen for the position.  12th grader Ashlie Dawkins calls the decision “careless, especially at a time when the American international relations are hanging on a thin thread.”

The Tillerson firing came at a risky time, as potential denuclearization talks between the United States and North Korea are on the calendar. Knowing this, many are wondering what caused Trump to make such an alarming decision. The truth is that Tillerson and Trump weren’t getting along too well, following rising tensions from rumors of Rex Tillerson calling the President a “moron.” Even so, the cherry on top was the direct disagreement of the two on the issue of Russia, following the devastating nerve-gas attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter on the streets of Salisbury. Tillerson released a statement saying that “there is never a justification for this type of attack—the attempted murder of a private citizen on the soil of a sovereign nation—and we are outraged that Russia appears to have again engaged in such behavior.”  This was a day before Rex Tillerson was fired from his cabinet position. 

On March 22, Tillerson gave his farewell speech to State Department employees in Washington D.C. He purposefully leaves the President out of remarks, along with the public manner of his firing. Before leaving for his home in Texas, Tillerson departs with a valuable message saying to “never lose sight of your most valuable asset, the most valuable asset you possess: your personal integrity,” that “only you can relinquish it or allow it to be compromised. Once you’ve done so, it is very, very hard to regain it. So guard it as the most precious thing you possess.”