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With Ambassador Haley continuing to represent the United States at the United Nations and Mike Pompeo serving as the new Secretary of State, America’s national security interests should be very well protected The ouster of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was long overdue. He was not a team player in the Trump administration. To the contrary, during his tenure, Mr. Tillerson moved further and further apart from President Trump’s thinking on critical foreign policy issues. He would have done well to follow the example of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, rather than try unsuccessfully at times to...

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 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...

LGBT activists wasted no time in attacking President Donald Trump's new pick to run the State Department, CIA Director Mike Pompeo. "Mike Pompeo's longstanding opposition to LGBTQ equality makes him a reckless choice to lead our nation's diplomatic efforts," Chad Griffin, president of the LGBT group Human Rights Campaign (HRC) said in a statement Tuesday. "The decision to nominate anti-LGBTQ Mike Pompeo could have serious consequences for the United States and LGBTQ people around the globe. The State Department has a crucial role to play in advancing human rights — a role which was already rapidly declining under Tillerson. This...

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...

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...

Speaking to reporters Tuesday afternoon, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced his final day at the Department after President Trump announced his firing earlier in the day. He will hand off his responsibilities to Deputy Secretary John Sullivan. "My commission as secretary of state will terminate at midnight March the 31st," Tillerson said. “What is most important is to ensure an orderly and smooth transition during a time that the country continues to face significant policy and national security challenges.” Tillerson listed off a number of accomplishments at the State Department and thanked agency employees, in addition to military members,...

On March 4th, Russian defector and former British intelligence source Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found slumped over on a bench in the city center of Salisbury, clearly in distress. As first responders quickly discovered, the Skripals had been poisoned with a potentially deadly nerve agent.But the damage was not limited just to them. Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, one of the first officers to respond to the scene, also fell ill and was hospitalized after being exposed to the nerve agent. Furthermore, hundreds of local residents in the small Southern English town who came into contact with the...

The White House has fired Steve Goldstein, the undersecretary of public affairs at the State Department, hours after replacing his boss, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.According to reports, the decision was made because Goldstein contradicted President Trump’s account of Tillerson’s firing when he stated that the former Exxon Mobile CEO was “unaware of the reason” he was being let go. BREAKING: Officials: White House fires top Tillerson aide who contradicted account of secretary of state's dismissal.— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) March 13, 2018 He also said Tillerson learned of his dismissal on Twitter, where Trump publicly announced it Tuesday morning and...

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.

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 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 U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem will open in May to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel declaring its independence, Trump administration officials said Friday. A senior State Department official said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson approved a security plan late Thursday for an embassy location to open in Jerusalem. “We are excited about taking this historic step, and look forward with anticipation to the May opening,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement on Friday. Officials told Fox News the embassy would initially be located in the neighborhood of Arnona on a compound that currently houses the...

While Treasury and Justice Departments break free of the Swamp. Early this week, Lebanon’s top army commander, Joseph Aoun, threatened to “confront any Israeli aggression, whatever that costs.” Aoun was referring to Lebanon’s contrived maritime and land border disputes with Israel. Aoun further noted that the Lebanese Armed Forces “would not spare any method” in challenging Israel. With those words, Aoun signed the LAF’s death warrant. The dispute, which was provoked by Hezbollah and Iran, centers on a triangular area of sea of around 330 square miles that falls squarely within Israel’s maritime borders. Hezbollah also opposes the construction of...

The Trump administration is considering an offer from Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson to pay for at least part of a new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, four U.S. officials told The Associated Press. Lawyers at the State Department are looking into the legality of accepting private donations to cover some or all of the embassy costs, the administration officials said. The discussions are occurring as the new embassy clears its final bureaucratic hurdles. On Thursday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ended weeks of delay by signing off on a security plan for moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy...

Sometimes when there’s bad news you just have to grit your teeth and bear it. Unfortunately, that’s what the U.S. has to do when it comes to the Syrian intervention underway from our erstwhile NATO ally Turkey. The good news is, Turkey’s meddlesome ambitions are sharply constrained — not just by the U.S. and its allies, but by America’s adversaries, too. Turkey, which continues to lurch further into authoritarianism and nostalgia for its bygone Ottoman Empire, recently chose to exploit the messy situation in Syria in hopes of gaining a big military advantage. The Kurds, who alone managed to break...

The discussions were expected to cover several proposals for improving cooperation along the border area. It's been a flashpoint over the years for Turkish-Kurdish tensions, al-Qaida and Islamic State fighters traveling back and forth, and incidents involving major powers including Russia. Reflecting the sensitivity of the talks between Tillerson and Erdogan, only Turkish Foreign Minister Melvut Cavusoglu, serving as translator, also was included in the meeting, which lasted more than three hours. Erdogan's office said the discussions touched on regional developments, including in Syria and Iraq, the fight against terrorism and bilateral relations. "Turkey's expectations and priorities on these issues...

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Photo: Wikicommons. The US administration’s work on a new Middle East peace plan is “fairly well advanced” and President Donald Trump will decide when to announce it, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Wednesday during a visit to Jordan. Tillerson also signed a five-year aid package that extends US support to Jordan, a key regional ally, despite Trump’s threat to withhold support from states opposed to his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Commenting on the peace plan, Tillerson said: “I have seen the plan. … It’s been under development...

Speaking at Stanford University after being introduced by former top diplomat Condoleezza Rice, Tillerson said the Trump administration was determined not to repeat President Barack Obama's "mistake" when he withdrew U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011. Republicans for years have argued the withdrawal created the opening for IS' rapid expansion.... Securing a successful U.N. peace process, getting Syrian President Bashar Assad to leave power, ridding Syria of Iran's influence and eradicating all weapons of mass destruction in the country.