Rex Tillerson: state department can be cut as we will soon solve global conflicts Read moreDonald Trump himself was less reassuring, however. When asked whether Tillerson would stay in his job, the president simply noted that the secretary of state was at the White House on Thursday. According to the New York Times, the first to report an impending departure, the plan was being put together by the White House chief of staff, John Kelly. But state department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that Kelly had called after the news reports broke and insisted they were false. Ivo Daalder, a former Nato ambassador and president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, said: “A decision by President Trump to remove Rex Tillerson as secretary of state would be unprecedented.

Source: The Guardian November 30, 2017 15:57 UTC