US President Donald Trump has fired US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. In his place, the head of the White House has appointed Mike Pompeo, until now director of the CIA. In turn, Pompeo is replaced by Gina Haspel, promoted from number two to number one in the Central Intelligence Agency. She is the first woman in history to achieve this position.
The announcement of the turnaround came directly from Trump, as always via Twitter:
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) 13 March 2018
TRUMP-TILLERSON DISSENT
Initially, Tillerson was considered one of Trump's loyalists, but relations between the two had long since strained due to strong disagreements on foreign policy. From Iran and North Korea, the now former Secretary of State had asked the President on several occasions to use more calm tones and to prefer the negotiation route to that of verbal confrontation.
A TEAR ANNOUNCED
The US press had repeatedly spoken of Tillerson's imminent resignation, but in the end, the President made the decision. Already last December the New York Times he had written that the White House had an "operational plan" to replace Tillerson with Pompeo. The The Washington Post he claims that the final decision was communicated last Friday to the Secretary of State, who was forced to return earlier than expected from his trip to Africa.
The President, continues the US newspaper, believes the change is important in view of the meeting with the leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un and the final phase of the negotiations to modify the NAFTA, the free trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico.
WHO IS THE NEW SECRETARY OF STATE
"Mike Pompeo has earned the praise of our two parties by strengthening the capacity of the Secret Service and modernizing our offensive and defensive capabilities and forging close ties with our allies," Trump wrote in an official statement.
Pompeo was a former congressman: a hard-line Republican representative of the Tea Party for Kansas. In this capacity he strongly criticized the nuclear deal concluded by the Obama administration with Iran.
On Russia, however, Pompeo is considered more aggressive than Trump and has come to define the number one in the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, "a dangerous leader".
Among his most controversial positions are his opposition to the closure of the Guantanamo prison and the defense of mass data collection by the National Security Agency.
WHO IS THE CIA'S NEW NUMBER ONE
As for Gina Haspel, an iron Trumpian like Pompeo, in 2002 she was allegedly involved in the cases of torture of two prisoners suspected of terrorism. She was appointed deputy director of the CIA just a few weeks ago.
Notably, Haspel has long been an undercover agent and – according to the agency Associated Press – years ago he would have directed a "black site" in Thailand, one of the centers where the "extraordinary rendition" program was practiced, which involved the use of torture during interrogations, later officially closed by Barack Obama.
