Tuesday morning proved to be an eventful one for the President Trump-driven news cycle, as State Secretary Rex Tillerson was formally let go from his cabinet position at the White House, and Trump’s longtime personal assistant, John McEntee was abruptly fired and removed from the White House. As much as this all may seem, however, the news cycle wasn’t done with Tillerson — for a statement issued by his undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, Steve Goldstein indicated the firing was a complete surprise. As a result of these contradictory remarks, Goldstein was promptly fired.
Remarkable statement from State Department spokesman on Tillerson firing: pic.twitter.com/iBpLaK1tXw
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) March 13, 2018
“The Secretary had every intention of staying, because of critical progress made in national security,” read Goldstein’s statement. “The Secretary did not speak to the president and is unaware of the reason [for his firing].” In addition to the undersecretary’s official comments, previous reports also seemed to indicate that the ex-State Secretary had initially found out about his firing via Twitter. Yet President Trump later told the press that he and Tillerson had spoken at length about the latter’s departure, saying the former ExxonMobil CEO would be “much happier” out of office.
As a result of the apparent contradiction in statements, the Associated Press reports that the White House fired Goldstein:
The officials said Steve Goldstein… was informed of the move shortly after he released a statement in his name saying that Tillerson was “unaware of the reason” for his termination. Goldstein had also told reporters that Tillerson learned of his firing Tuesday morning from Trump’s tweet announcing he was nominating CIA chief Mike Pompeo to lead the State Department
Neither the White House nor Goldstein returned the AP’s requests for comment. Even so, that didn’t stop Twitter from offering its own myriad of takes on the now ex-State Department official’s status.
https://twitter.com/kashanacauley/status/973593537374699520
The Purge: Anarchy https://t.co/erHAgUUEBL
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) March 13, 2018
This administration sometimes feels like the opening credits of Battlestar Galactica, where in each episode the number of survivors keeps going down. https://t.co/8hPngFbgi1
— Matt Pearce 🦅🇺🇸 (@mattdpearce) March 13, 2018
https://twitter.com/ArthurSchwartz/status/973593270986199040
Trump is just firing people to distract us from the fact that his pants are on fire. https://t.co/mYHDPMQ2vc
— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) March 13, 2018
The people responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked https://t.co/Y34nLipfUW
— Myke Cole (@MykeCole) March 13, 2018
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) March 13, 2018
(Via Associated Press)