WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump shook up his cabinet Tuesday by firing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and choosing CIA Director Mike Pompeo as his successor, just as the White House plans to open talks with North Korea and a decision looms on the Iran nuclear accord.

The ousting of Mr. Tillerson, who first heard from the president about the move on Twitter, rippled through diplomatic circles around the world and set off a cascade of changes in the administration.

Mr. Trump selected Gina Haspel, a longtime intelligence officer, to take over the Central Intelligence Agency. Both Mr. Pompeo and Ms. Haspel will require Senate confirmation before assuming their new positions.

“I’ve gotten to know a lot of people very well over the last year,” said Mr. Trump, whose administration has been marked by a level of turnover unprecedented in the modern era. “And I’m really at a point where we’re getting very close to having the cabinet and other things that I want.”

Mr. Trump also said that he and Mr. Pompeo, both opponents of the Iran nuclear deal, were “always on the same wavelength.” The Republican president called Ms. Haspel, who would be the CIA’s first female director, “an outstanding person who also I have gotten to know very well.”

Gina Haspel Photo: CIA

Mr. Pompeo is expected to be confirmed; he was confirmed last year as CIA director by a 66-32 vote. But there were immediate questions about Ms. Haspel, who was involved in a CIA program after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that relied on interrogation techniques that many experts described as torture.


Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) said in a statement that Congress should seek assurances from Ms. Haspel during the confirmation process that the CIA would comply with guidelines prohibiting torture. He said he wants her to “explain the nature and extent of her involvement in the CIA’s interrogation program.”

Mr. Trump said he appreciated Mr. Tillerson’s service and wished him well. “Rex will be much happier now,” he said.

Differences between Messrs. Trump and Tillerson seemed to ease somewhat in recent months. The president was satisfied with Mr. Tillerson’s performance in Asia, when they visited the continent together in November, people familiar with Mr. Trump’s assessment said. And on North Korea, Mr. Trump has moved closer to Mr. Tillerson, who has long supported opening a dialogue with the regime.

Still, two senior administration officials said the president had lost trust in his secretary of state. After agreeing to talks last week with North Korea, Mr. Trump decided to make the move.

“The president wanted to make sure the transition happens before the conversation takes place with North Korea, and with the trade issues taking effect,” a third senior administration official said, referring to Mr. Trump’s move to impose duties on steel and aluminum imports.


Foreign leaders also posited that the change was connected to a possible North Korea summit. “It would appear that Mr. Trump is aiming to strengthen his lineup by switching cabinet secretaries before the beginning of high-risk negotiations with North Korea,” Masahisa Sato, Japan’s vice foreign minister, wrote on Twitter.

Mr. Tillerson never won the trust of the State Department’s career staff as he presided over Mr. Trump’s vision of slashing the U.S.’s foreign-policy bureaucracy. Senior diplomats complained that Mr. Tillerson didn’t turn to them for advice, and career experts have fled the department over the past year. He also made unpopular hiring freezes as part of his effort to redesign the agency, which he hadn’t rolled out before leaving.

Mr. Tillerson said he would delegate responsibilities for running the agency to Deputy Secretary John Sullivan. His last official day is March 31.

The outgoing secretary of state never once mentioned the president in brief remarks Tuesday afternoon at the State Department. Instead, he issued a clear rebuke of Russia’s “troubling actions,” and, with a trembling voice, thanked the agency’s career staff and foreign-service diplomats.

Turnover Under Trump A tally of senior officials and aides who have left the administration VIEW Interactive Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS

“The world needs selfless leaders like these, ready to work with longstanding allies, new emerging partners and allies,” Mr. Tillerson said. “Many are struggling as democracies, and in some cases are dealing with human tragedy, crisis of natural disasters—literally crawling themselves out of those circumstances.”


A former Exxon Mobil Corp. chief executive who never had served in government, Mr. Tillerson will return to private life after one of the most difficult tenures for a secretary of state, leaving a legacy of public and private differences with his president.

The two were a study in contrasts and disagreed over key national-security issues, including the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, the administration’s proposed talks with North Korea, a dispute about terrorist financing among Persian Gulf countries and the Paris climate accord. Both men struggled to hide their displeasure with the other.

During a meeting at the Pentagon last year, Mr. Tillerson referred to the president as a “moron,” according to people familiar with the conversations. Mr. Tillerson’s spokeswoman has denied he made the remark; Mr. Tillerson never denied making the remark, but he dismissed it as gossip.

Mr. Trump didn’t hesitate to contradict his secretary of state on Twitter and deliver biting criticisms in private. Mr. Trump repeatedly told aides that the diplomat was “totally establishment in his thinking,” according to White House officials familiar with those conversations.

Inside the White House, senior administration officials often said there were as many as five secretaries of state, including Mr. Tillerson; national security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster; Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior aide who oversaw Middle East policy; United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley; and Jason Greenblatt, who is the president’s adviser on international negotiations.


The inherent confusion emboldened foreign leaders to go around Mr. Tillerson as it became obvious that his message often contrasted with the president’s. Officials in Israel, Saudi Arabia, China, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere more frequently communicated directly with the White House than with Mr. Tillerson, with some nations cutting him out entirely.

Without many allies, other than Defense Secretary James Mattis, Mr. Tillerson tried to keep a low profile as he aimed to moderate some of Mr. Trump’s impulses, such as immediately withdrawing from the Iran deal and totally slashing funds for the U.N.’s Palestinian refugee agency.

Mr. Mattis, who was in Kabul Tuesday, declined to comment on Mr. Tillerson’s dismissal, according to a Pentagon spokesman.

On Friday, White House officials awoke Mr. Tillerson with a phone call after 2 a.m. in Africa, where the secretary of state was on a diplomatic trip, and ordered him to come back to Washington a day early.

John Kelly, the president’s chief of staff, repeatedly urged Mr. Tillerson to resign, but Mr. Tillerson refused, saying he wanted to hear it from the president, said a senior administration official.

Mr. Tillerson returned to Washington at about 4 a.m. on Tuesday, and Mr. Trump announced the changes on Twitter three hours later. Mr. Tillerson, who doesn’t use Twitter, learned about his ouster after an aide told him of the tweet.

“The secretary did not speak to the president this morning and is unaware of the reason,” said Steve Goldstein, who was also ousted Tuesday from his job as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy. “But he is grateful for the opportunity to serve and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling and not to be regretted.”

—Nancy A. Youssef

and Kristina Peterson contributed to this article.

Write to Michael C. Bender at Mike.Bender@wsj.com and Felicia Schwartz at Felicia.Schwartz@wsj.com