President Trump called his former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson “dumb as a rock” Friday after the ousted cabinet member made unflattering comments at a charity event.

“Mike Pompeo is doing a great job, I am very proud of him. His predecessor, Rex Tillerson, didn’t have the mental capacity needed,” Mr. Trump wrote. “He was dumb as a rock and I couldn’t get rid of him fast enough. He was lazy as hell.”

The comments came after Mr. Tillerson gave a rare public statement in Houston about his tenure working with Mr. Trump.

Mr. Tillerson said the president acts on instincts, which was starkly different than his own style. He said Mr. Trump “doesn’t like to read,” and is “pretty undisciplined.

“So often, the president would say here’s what I want to do and here’s how I want to do it and I would have to say to him, Mr. President I understand what you want to do but you can’t do it that way. It violates the law,” he said in an interview with CBS’s Bob Schieffer.

When Mr. Trump nominated Mr. Tillerson in December 2016, he said of him: “His tenacity, broad experience and deep understanding of geopolitics make him an excellent choice for Secretary of State.”

The rocky relationship ended in March when Mr. Tillerson was nixed and replaced by Secretary of State Michael Pompeo.

• Dave Boyer contributed to this article.

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