THE White House is discussing a plan to oust Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo in a major shake-up of President Donald Trump’s national security team, administration officials said overnight.

The move would put Mr Pompeo, a former congressman who has grown close to Mr Trump during his tenure atop the CIA, in charge of US diplomacy.

Mr Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil CEO, has had a rough first year characterised by tensions with Mr Trump in several foreign policy areas and overwhelmingly negative publicity over Tillerson’s planned overhaul of the State Department.

Putting Mr Pompeo at the State Department would create a vacancy at the CIA, which US officials and other individuals familiar with White House thinking said could be filled by Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, one of Mr Trump’s staunchest defenders on foreign policy in Congress.

Mr Cotton’s office wouldn’t comment other than to say: “Senator Cotton’s focus is on serving Arkansans in the Senate.”

Mr Tillerson’s likely ouster loomed awkwardly over an Oval Office meeting overnight between Mr Trump and the visiting crown prince of Bahrain.

Asked by a reporter whether he wanted Mr Tillerson to stay on the job, Mr Trump was coy, merely pointing out that Mr Tillerson was in fact in the room for the meeting.

“He’s here. Rex is here,” the president said.

A White House official said it was unclear how soon Mr Tillerson might be replaced, and word of the plan appeared to catch Mr Tillerson and his staff off-guard. Tillerson aides and the State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The New York Times, which first reported the potential shake-up, said it was likely to happen within several weeks.

The Chinese Envoy, who just returned from North Korea, seems to have had no impact on Little Rocket Man. Hard to believe his people, and the military, put up with living in such horrible conditions. Russia and China condemned the launch. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2017

Nor was it clear whether either Mr Pompeo or Mr Cotton had been formally approached by the White House about the potential new roles. Yet several administration officials said that Pompeo has said in the past that he’s open to taking the job.

The White House started telling people in September that Mr Tillerson would be replaced, said a senior administration official. By that point, some issues that needed sign-off from the secretary of state were being put off until after Mr Tillerson was gone, said the official, who like others wasn’t authorised to comment publicly and demanded anonymity.

Word of the White House plan will significantly complicate Mr Tillerson’s ability to conduct diplomacy and run the State Department for as long as he stays, given that foreign governments may now consider him a “lame duck.”

Foreign leaders had anticipated Mr Tillerson was likely to attend a scheduled gathering of NATO foreign ministers next week in Brussels, though the State Department hadn’t confirmed that.

Mr Tillerson had been scheduled to speak overnight at an event about global efforts to fight AIDS, but the White House announced he would be represented by his deputy instead.

It comes as Donald Trump urged China to cut oil shipments to North Korea to bring it to the negotiating table over its nuclear and missile programs.

The US diplomatic moves come as North Korea celebrates the test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that Pyongyang says gives it the ability to strike Washington with a nuclear weapon.

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, warned that the missile test has brought the world closer to war and said President Donald Trump has urged China’s President Xi Jinping to cut off Pyongyang’s oil supplies.

If Beijing does not act, she warned, “we can take the oil situation in our own hands.”

Mr Trump took to Twitter overnight to say that a Chinese envoy to Pyongyang had apparently failed to sway North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

But at a State Department photo op with visiting German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, Tillerson said “the Chinese are doing a lot.” He added, however, “We do think that they can do more with the oil.” He said the United States was urging Beijing to “restrain” oil shipments to Pyongyang, “not cut it off completely.” “The most effective tool the last time the North Koreans came to the table,” he said, “was cutting the oil off.”