President Trump tweeted on Tuesday morning his decision to remove Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his plans to replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo: “Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!” According to NBC News, Mr. Tillerson learned of the president’s decision from the tweet, although White House Chief of Staff John Kelly had reportedly told Mr. Tillerson last Friday that the president planned to ask the Secretary of State to “step aside.”

Secretary of State Tillerson said his goodbyes without anything positive to say about the president. His official final day in office will be March 31^st.

The State Department’s press office said in a prepared statement that Secretary of State Tillerson “had every intention of remaining because of the tangible progress made on critical national security issues. The Secretary did not speak to the President this morning and is unaware of the reason, but he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling and not to be regretted.”

President Trump told reporters that he had made the decision to remove Mr. Tillerson because they had “a different mindset.” The only surprise is why it took the president this long to act. Mr. Tillerson was reported to have called President Trump a “moron” last summer, which the ousted Secretary of State has not explicitly denied saying. Needless to say, such personal insults are not well received by this president. However, Mr. Tillerson managed to stay on the job months longer. While in office, both before and after the reported insult, Mr. Tillerson moved further and further apart from President Trump’s thinking on critical foreign policy issues.