WASHINGTON, MAR 13 (DNA) – US President Donald Trump has sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and appointed CIA Chief Mike Pompeo as New Secretary of State.

Earlier the US state department has said it has been assured by the White House there are no plans to oust Rex Tillerson and replace him with the CIA director, Mike Pompeo.

Donald 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.

“He’s here. Rex is here,” Trump said.

The cryptic non-denial added fuel to multiple reports quoting White House officials as saying a plan was under consideration to get rid of Tillerson, put Pompeo, a former Republican congressman in his place, and make Senator Tom Cotton, another Trump loyalist, CIA director.