The long-simmering tensions between President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson came to a head Tuesday, when the commander-in-chief announced the ouster of the country’s top diplomat with a tweet.
One political analyst told Cheddar the move was telling.
“It speaks a lot to the character of the two men,” commentator Rick Wilson said. “When Donald Trump was selling steaks, vodka, and a fake university, Rex Tillerson was building Exxon into the largest energy company in the world.
“The anxiety that Trump has about Tillerson being more competent than him has finally played itself out.”
Tillerson reportedly found out about his firing after Trump took to Twitter to announce that CIA Director Mike Pompeo would take over at the State Department.
The president later said he and the former ExxonMobil CEO “were not really thinking the same,” but that Pompeo had a “similar thought process.”
Still, the decision to remove Tillerson came hours after he voiced his support of UK Prime Minister Theresa May and the British government, who on Monday said Russia was likely behind the poisoning of an ex-Moscow spy.
The Trump administration did not officially second those findings.
But Wilson said Tillerson was right to consider Russia “an imminent national security threat.”
“Donald Trump doesn’t see it that way,” he told Cheddar. “There’s something wrong about Donald Trump’s relationship and viewpoint about Vladimir Putin that makes him behave this way, even when serious and consequential people around him are warning him.”
The White House denied Tillerson’s dismissal had anything to do with Russia, instead saying it wanted to have new leadership in place before Trump’s meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, expected this spring.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/no-collusion-and-tillerson-is-out).
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is launching a new global program called "Generation Equality: Realizing women's rights for an equal future," a partnership between UN Women, the World Economic Forum, the private sector, and Gates Foundation.
Republican Senator Mitt Romney from Utah told Cheddar he would be interested in hearing from John Bolton as the president's impeachment trial defense headed into its final day.
Speaking before Trump's attorneys begin their final day of defense arguments in the impeachment trial Schumer maintained Democrats would not bargain on witnesses.
U.S. officials say President Donald Trump's long-awaited Middle East peace plan calls for the creation of a State of Palestine with its capital in portions of east Jerusalem.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Tuesday, January 28, 2020.
The Republican senator from Texas gave some indication that he was curious about the alleged bombshell manuscript by former national security advisor John Bolton that might further implicate President Trump in his trial.
Trump's lawyers on Monday brushed past the extraordinary allegations in the draft of a new book by his former national security adviser as the legal team made historical and legal arguments for acquittal.
GOP and Dem senators offered different reactions to a bombshell New York Times report that ex-National Security Advisor John Bolton wrote in a manuscript that President Trump told him that he froze aid to Ukraine in exchange for a Biden investigation.
U.S. stocks fell sharply Monday as investors worry about the potential economic impact of the outbreak of a new virus from China. The declines in the U.S. followed a sell-off in markets in Europe and Japan.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
