Donald Trump 'sacks secretary of state Rex Tillerson by tweet'

Rex Tillerson found out he had been sacked as US secretary of state when he saw the news in a tweet from Donald Trump, it has been reported.

The US president fired Mr Tillerson on Tuesday but did not do so in person.

Instead, Mr Trump announced Mr Tillerson’s successor, CIA director Mike Pompeo, on Twitter.

Mr Tillerson was sacked hours after he publicly backed the UK finding that Russia is “highly likely” to have used a weapons-grade nerve agent on British soil.

In one of his final acts as the head of US diplomacy on Monday evening, Mr Tillerson spoke with UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson about the poisoning nine days ago of a former Russian double agent in Salisbury, Wiltshire.

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Mr Tillerson issued a strongly-worded statement expressing “full confidence” in the UK’s assessment that Russia was likely to be responsible and called for the perpetrators to face “appropriately serious consequences”.

But his comments contrasted with the words of White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who condemned the attack and offered sympathy and support to the UK, but made no reference to possible Russian involvement.

It emerged that Mr Trump did not sack Mr Tillerson face-to-face.

Steve Goldstein, a spokesman for the US state department, said: “The Secretary had every intention of staying, because of critical progress made in national security.

“The Secretary did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason.”

In his tweet, Mr Trump said: “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!”

Mr Tillerson, a former chief executive of ExxonMobil, was appointed just over a year ago, and there had long been speculation that he was out of favour with Mr Trump, particularly after a report which claimed he called the president a “moron”.

In December, Mr Trump tweeted that Mr Tillerson’s position was not in jeopardy.

He said: “The media has been speculating that I fired Rex Tillerson or that he would be leaving soon – FAKE NEWS!

“He’s not leaving and while we disagree on certain subjects, (I call the final shots) we work well together and America is highly respected again!”

Following the very public sacking, Mr Trump explained he and Mr Tillerson had differences in “chemistry”.

He said: “We got along actually quite well, but we disagreed on things.

“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.”

Mr Trump said he made the decision to sack him “by myself” and that Mr Tillerson will be “much happier now”.

The Washington Post reported that the president made his decision on Friday.