Tillerson’s firing had been expected, but it still stunned observers

Washington: US President Donald Trump's firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has sent shock waves through the world.

His unhappiness with Tillerson, who once called him a "moron," was well known, and the possibility of his replacement by CIA Director Mike Pompeo was floated last autumn.

Goodbye to all that: Rex Tillerson.Credit: AP

Even so, the abruptness of the dismissal - hours after Tillerson returned from a tour of Africa and pointed the finger at Russia for the poisoning of a former spy in Britain, and on the brink of awaited talks between Trump and the leader of North Korea - surprised foreign policy experts.

Some critics raised the prospects of what they called a more hawkish and rightward turn in US foreign policy. Others, however, noted that Tillerson, an oil executive with no prior government experience, had been deeply unpopular within the US State Department.

They speculated that Pompeo, a former congressman from Kansas who is highly regarded by Trump, might be more effective at managing both the President and the diplomatic corps.

The news, announced by Trump via tweet, contributed to the picture of an administration that has abandoned conventional decorum in favour of a reality television show-style of freewheeling decision-making. The dismissal also raised fears that low morale at the State Department, hit by an exodus of diplomats, would plunge further.

"Tillerson loathed by State Dept diplomats, but balanced & sensible in most areas of foreign policy," Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy, said in a Twitter message. "Pompeo dramatically more hawkish on N Korea and Iran. Challenging day for the planet."

Mike Pompeo will replace Rex Tillerson as US Secretary of State.Credit: Bloomberg

Despite the way the announcement was handled, many conservatives viewed Pompeo's ascendance as an enormous opportunity.

"Tillerson firing may open the floodgates for more conservatives to enter the admin," Jordan Schachtel, national security correspondent for The Conservative Review, wrote on Twitter. "Peace Through Strength is making its grand return."

Human rights advocates, while never enamoured with Tillerson, expressed alarm at Pompeo's elevation. They were even more alarmed that Pompeo's deputy at the CIA, Gina Haspel, had been named to replace him, given her role in coercive interrogations of terrorism suspects in the years after the September 11 attacks.

US President Donald Trump has nominated CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel to replace Mike Pompeo.Credit: CIA/AP

The American Civil Liberties Union called Haspel the "central figure in one of the most illegal and shameful chapters in modern American history."

Vincent Warren, the executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a statement that "Gina Haspel should be prosecuted, not promoted."

A conspicuous exception to the surprise was the reaction of the US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, whose antipathy for Tillerson had been an open secret. Foreign Policy magazine reported last week that she had not even hung the official portrait of Tillerson in the lobby of the US Mission to the United Nations.

Without mentioning Tillerson by name, she posted an enthusiastic message on Twitter moments after Trump's announcement.

There was no immediate official reaction in Asia, partly because of the timing of Trump's announcement — late evening in China, Japan and the Korean Peninsula, where news of his intended meeting with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, is still sinking in.

In Iran, the official Islamic Republic News Agency's website posted an unflattering photo of Pompeo, who has made clear he considers the Tehran government more of a threat than Tillerson did.

In Europe, where disdain for the Trump administration is widespread, Enrico Letta, a former Italian prime minister, said of Tillerson's dismissal on Twitter: "This will make many laugh even more, as usually happens when one speaks of Trump. For me, he scares me more and more."

Michael Roth, Germany's deputy foreign minister, tweeted: "The dismissal of Rex Tillerson does not help."

The firing was announced only hours after Tillerson delivered the administration's strongest and clearest statement to date on the March 4 poisoning of a Russian former spy in Salisbury, England, with a nerve agent.

"I've become extremely concerned about Russia," Tillerson told reporters while flying from Nigeria to Cape Verde, before returning to the United States. "We spent most of last year investing a lot into attempts to work together, to solve problems, to address differences. And quite frankly, after a year, we didn't get very far. Instead what we've seen is a pivot on their part to be more aggressive."

He added: "And this is very, very concerning to me and others, that there seems to be a certain unleashing of activity that we don't fully understand what the objective behind that is. And if in fact this attack in the UK is the work of the Russian government, this is a pretty serious action."

Some speculated that Tillerson's criticism of Russia might have been more than coincidental to his dismissal. Trump has avoided such criticism of Russia.

"Today Tillerson is fired as secretary of state. While friction with Trump was months old, the abrupt timing here is suspect," Beau Willimon, the creator of the television series House of Cards, said on Twitter.

In Russia, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, expressed sarcasm about Tillerson's dismissal.

"Have they started blaming Russia yet for the Washington staff changes?" she said.

However, White House officials said the decision to fire Tillerson had been made earlier: White House Chief of Staff John Kelly tried to call Tillerson on Friday and Saturday, apparently to warn him that if he did not step down, he would be dismissed.

Bill Kristol, a conservative commentator, questioned the style of the dismissal. "Has Trump ever had the nerve to fire someone face to face?" he asked on Twitter, noting that former FBI Director James Comey learnt that he was out of a job in May, while on a trip to Los Angeles.

Jack Posobiec, a right-wing provocateur with a track record for disseminating false information, was one of a few prominent Trump supporters who embraced the decision.

"Tillerson didn't want to name Jerusalem Israel's capital, wanted to stay in Paris climate agreement, and often undermined the President publicly and insulted him privately" Posobiec said. "No surprise why this guy was fired."

New York Times