Trump fires Tillerson: How 'Rexit' rumour became a reality; 10 developments

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, ending his short but tumultuous tenure as the nations chief diplomat. CIA Director Mike Pompeo will take over the top position.

Trump took to Twitter to share the development, saying: "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 -- Deputy Director at the Central Intelligence Agency -- will succeed Pompeo, becoming the first woman to run the spy agency, if confirmed. Both she and Pompeo would need confirmation by the Senate to take their respective positions. "Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!" Trump tweeted.

Mike Pompeo: Five facts to know about Trump's new US Secretary of State

Following are the five facts about US Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo, who the President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced will replace Rex Tillerson as US secretary of state.

Mike Pompeo, 54, regularly briefs Donald Trump on intelligence matters, and is considered one of the most hawkish voices on North Korea in Trump’s inner circle.
Pompeo has downplayed the extent of Russia’s intervention in the 2016 US presidential election, saying Moscow has sought to influence American elections for decades. In February, he defended talks he had that month at CIA headquarters with Russian spy chiefs.

Like Trump, Mike Pompeo is an outspoken critic of Iran and has called for scrapping the 2015 deal curbing Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
In October, he said Iran was“mounting a ruthless drive to be the hegemonic power in the region.”

Will release all John F Kennedy files to end 'conspiracy theories': Trump

US President Donald Trump today said he will release all files associated with the assassination of former president John F Kennedy to end all "conspiracy theories".

Trump said this in a tweet a day after the National Archives, at his direction, released more than 2,800 secret files related to the assassination of Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

At the same time, he agreed to the request from various intelligence and security agencies mainly FBI and CBI, to withhold quite a number of such files, which remains away from the public domain, thus increasingly providing fodder to conspiracy theories.

In his tweet, Trump said after strict consultation with his Chief of Staff, General John Kelly, the CIA and other agencies, "I will be releasing ALL JFK files" other than the names and addresses of any mentioned person who is still living.

"I am doing this for reason of full disclosure, transparency and in order to put any and all conspiracy theories to rest," Trump said, a day after he ordered a large number of JFK files still be under the wraps.

read more

Donald Trump releases some JFK assassination files, blocks others

President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the unveiling of 2,800 documents related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy but yielded to pressure from the FBI and CIA to block the release of some information to be reviewed further.

Congress had ordered in 1992 that all records relating to the investigation into Kennedy’s death should be open to the public, and set a final deadline of Oct. 26, 2017, for the entire set to be made public.

Trump had confirmed on Saturday that he would allow for the opening of the documents, “subject to the receipt of further information.”

Administration officials told reporters on a conference call that Trump ordered government agencies to study the redactions in withheld documents over the next 180 days to determine whether they needed to remain hidden from the public. After the review, Trump expected such withholdings to be rare.

The White House said remaining records with redactions would be released “on a rolling basis” in the coming weeks.

In a memo to government agency heads, Trump said the American people deserved as much access as possible to the records.

READ MORE