Secretary of State Rex Tillerson may be (ahem) intact, but his relationship with President Trump has turned famously testy. Trump has been weighing replacing Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, Axios reported after the Trump-Tillerson rift widened publicly, and now, Axios' Mike Allen said Monday morning, Trump is mulling Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) to replace Pompeo at the CIA. Cotton, 40, is open to the switch, a "longtime friend" tells Axios: "This guy quit his fancy law firm to serve his country in the wake of 9/11. He does his duty when the country calls."
Conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt, who speaks with Cotton and first floated him for the CIA job, according to Axios, said that Trump is comfortable with Cotton and talks to him on the phone several times a week. Both Cotton and Pompeo, a former congressman, "like and listen to the president" and "accept his realism in foreign affairs," Hewitt tells Axios. You can read more about the Trump administration scuttlebutt at Axios.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
We Did OK, Kid: Anthony Hopkins’ candid memoir is a ‘page-turner’The Week Recommends The 87-year-old recounts his journey from ‘hopeless’ student to Oscar-winning actor
-
The Mushroom Tapes: a compelling deep dive into the trial that gripped AustraliaThe Week Recommends Acclaimed authors team up for a ‘sensitive and insightful’ examination of what led a seemingly ordinary woman to poison four people
-
Turner: The Secret Sketchbooks – a fascinating portrait of the great painterThe Week Recommends BBC2 documentary examines the rarely seen sketchbooks of the enigmatic artist
-
Judge halts Trump’s DC Guard deploymentSpeed Read The Trump administration has ‘infringed upon the District’s right to govern itself,’ the judge ruled
-
Trump accuses Democrats of sedition meriting ‘death’Speed Read The president called for Democratic lawmakers to be arrested for urging the military to refuse illegal orders
-
Court strikes down Texas GOP gerrymanderSpeed Read The Texas congressional map ordered by Trump is likely an illegal racial gerrymander, the court ruled
-
Trump defends Saudi prince, shrugs off Khashoggi murderSpeed Read The president rebuked an ABC News reporter for asking Mohammed bin Salman about the death of a Washington Post journalist at the Saudi Consulate in 2018
-
Congress passes bill to force release of Epstein filesSpeed Read The Justice Department will release all files from its Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation
-
Trump says he will sell F-35 jets to Saudi ArabiaSpeed Read The president plans to make several deals with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman this week
-
Judge blasts ‘profound’ errors in Comey caseSpeed Read ‘Government misconduct’ may necessitate dismissing the charges against the former FBI director altogether
-
Ecuador rejects push to allow US military basesSpeed Read Voters rejected a repeal of a constitutional ban on US and other foreign military bases in the country
