Washington (CNN) Hours after his boss, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, was ousted Steve Goldstein, the undersecretary of public affairs at the State Department, has been fired by the White House.

Goldstein publicly contradicted the White House account of how Tillerson was fired on Tuesday morning.

Goldstein said Tillerson was officially notified he'd been fired from a tweet from President Donald Trump on Tuesday morning, and in a statement, said Tillerson had "every intention of remaining."

A senior administration official said Trump asked Tillerson to step aside on Friday and a senior White House official later clarified that chief of staff John Kelly told Tillerson that he would be replaced, but did not specify the timing.

Asked how Tillerson learned of his dismissal, Trump said Tuesday that "Rex and I have been talking about this a long time." He specifically mentioned the Iran nuclear deal as an example of disagreement.

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