Free Republic

‘Trump’s dangerous shift on Iran’ author received approval from Foggy Bottom.' The U.S. State Department under former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson vetted and approved the publication of fiercely anti-Trump news articles written by a current State Department official, Conservative Review has learned. On October 13 in the White House, President Trump announced that he had ordered a complete strategic review concerning the United States’ Iran policy. “Today, I am announcing our strategy, along with several major steps we are taking to confront the Iranian regime’s hostile actions and to ensure that Iran never, and I mean never, acquires a...

U.S. foreign policy toward adversaries such as Russia, North Korea and Syria may turn more aggressive if CIA Director Mike Pompeo becomes secretary of state. Pompeo has lambasted Moscow's aggression toward the West and other countries: January 2018: "I continue to be concerned not only about the Russians but about others' efforts as well. We have many foes who want to undermine Western democracy. So there's this Washington-based focus on Russian interference. I want to make sure we broaden the conversation." North Korea October 2017: Pompeo said Pyongyang was would soon be able to threaten a U.S. city with nuclear...

the White House held a Middle East summit that demonstrated Tillerson’s basic assumptions have the problems of the Middle East precisely backwards.Under the leadership of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, along with Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s senior negotiator, Israeli officials sat in the White House for the first time with Arab officials from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, and Qatar. Representatives from Egypt and Jordan, with which Israel enjoys open diplomatic relations, were also in attendance. Canadian and European officials participated as well. Although they were invited, the Palestinians chose to boycott the conference. Their boycott was...

President Donald Trump sent a clear message to European allies and senior administration officials Tuesday when he fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson:  the President remains steadfast on implementing his strategy to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, even if it means dismantling the 2015 Iran nuclear deal established by President Obama, sources told this reporter.Trump, who ‘begrudgingly’ recertified the Iran deal January, will not re-certify in May if Germany, France or Great Britain back down from the conditions the administration set in place at the beginning of the year to hold Tehran accountable for its nuclear program, a White House official...

Video at Link. Some insight from Morris about what Trump wants to do in foreign affairs and with the mindset at the State Dept.

Following a recent trip to Ukraine, Rep. Mike Pompeo of Kansas told Newsmax that while the final outcome of the ongoing crisis is "impossible to predict," Russian President Vladimir Putin's long-term mission "is to control Ukraine." "It could easily go on from there to Belarus or Moldova," he added, referring to two other independent states in the former Soviet Union that have large Russian-speaking populations. Two-termer Pompeo, a Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee, is part of the growing number of younger Republicans in the House urging the administration to take a harder line against Russia on the economic...

The abrupt firing Tuesday of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson follows months of infighting between the State Department and White House over efforts by Tillerson to save the Iran nuclear deal and ignore President Donald Trump's demands that the agreement be fixed or completely scrapped by the United States, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon. In the weeks leading up to Tillerson's departure, he had been spearheading efforts to convince European allies to agree to a range of fixes to the nuclear deal that would address Iran's ongoing ballistic missile...

The New York Post took a jab at the ousting of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by riffing on an old headline that featured President Trump. “Worst Rex He Ever Had,” Wednesday's front page reads. The headline is a reference to a 1990 front page that quoted Marla Maples saying Trump, her soon-to-be husband, was the “Best Sex I’ve Ever Had.” The two were married in 1993 and divorced in 1999. Wednesday’s front page quickly went viral on social media.

President Trump ordered Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to eat a salad served to U.S. diplomats during a trip to China last year, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The Chinese leaders had reportedly included Caesar salad on the menu for a dinner with Trump, Tillerson and other top U.S. officials in November. The event was held in China's Great Hall of the People during Trump's tour of Asia. Trump grew worried that the Chinese officials might be offended if the U.S. leaders didn't eat the salad, the Journal reported. "Rex, eat the salad," Trump told his top diplomat, according...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s past comments on ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson haunted her Tuesday after she cast the latest development as a form of capitulation to Russia. Months of policy disagreements came to a head this week between President Trump and Mr. Tillerson in a single tweet: “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!” Mrs. Pelosi released a statement which called the move an attempt to curry favor with Moscow, based on Tillerson’s criticism of the Kremlin...

So here’s where we are now. On Friday President Trump abruptly fired his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, forcing him to cut short a trip to Africa. https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/973550099585478657/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fhurryupharry.org%2F2018%2F03%2F13%2Ftrump-fires-tillerson%2F https://twitter.com/AP/status/973592726787756032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fhurryupharry.org%2F2018%2F03%2F13%2Ftrump-fires-tillerson%2F Although Tillerson and Trump publicly disagreed on many things, I found this particularly interesting: On the flight from Nigeria, Tillerson appeared to break with the White House in his assessment of the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. He singled out Russia as responsible for the attack, echoing the finger-pointing of the British government. “It came from Russia,” Tillerson said, according to the Associated Press. “I cannot understand why...

The Evening Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends) So, what to make of the Rex Tillerson firing? ThereÂ’s a lot to unpack here, so IÂ’ll try to do it in a fairly orderly fashion. First, letÂ’s state up front the undeniable truth that Rex Tillerson was the nationÂ’s finest Secretary of State in a decade. Unlike his two immediate predecessors in the job, Mr. Tillerson is a patriot, a lover of America, a believer in promoting American-style Democracy around the world and protecting U.S. national security at home. He had no interest in selling AmericaÂ’s foreign policy to the...

It's coming...just wait for it. Any minute now, the press will declare President Trump's ouster of secretary of state Rex Tillerson as "chaos" and "disarray." Such baloney. Tillerson was a good man, and he ably served the country in getting the Saudi Arabians to turn hard toward the West as the Iran threat loomed. That's a real achievement. The result we now see – from Saudis allowing women to drive to Saudis changing their stance toward Israel in a friendly direction to Saudis putting the screws to the local billionaire princeling financiers of Osama bin Laden and other lunatic forces,...

President Donald Trump on Tuesday named Gina Haspel as the first woman head of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Trump also replaced US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA director Mike Pompeo.

The purge at the State Department isn’t stopping with Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson. Stephen Goldstein, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, was fired after putting out a statement apparently contradicting the White House’s version of why Mr. Tillerson was fired. Mr. Trump said the parting of the ways was in the works for some time, but a statement issued by Mr. Goldstein Tuesday morning said Mr. Tillerson “did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason” for his dismissal.

Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi issued this statement after President Trump fired his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and announced CIA Director Mike Pompeo as his replacement: “Secretary Tillerson’s firing sets a profoundly disturbing precedent in which standing up for our allies against Russian aggression is grounds for a humiliating dismissal. President Trump’s actions show that every official in his Administration is at the mercy of his personal whims and his worship of Putin. “It is no wonder that the President has trouble attracting high-caliber people to his Administration when he undercuts and humiliates those he supposedly respects....

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Sunday that President Trump "speaks for himself" when he was asked about the president's values and response to the racially charged violence in Charlottesville, Va. "I don't believe anyone doubts the American people's values or the commitment of the government or the government's agencies to advancing those values and defending those values," Tillerson told Chris Wallace on "Fox New Sunday," adding "the president speaks for himself." The secretary of State was responding to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which recently criticized Trump's response to Charlottesville. "We express America's values...

Trump tweeted, "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!"

President Trump has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, orchestrating a major change to his national security team amid delicate negotiations with North Korea, White House officials said Tuesday. Trump last Friday asked Tillerson to step aside, and the embattled top diplomat cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday that the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in Britain “clearly came from Russia” and “certainly will trigger a response."