A plan to oust Secretary of State Rex Tillerson from his Cabinet-level post was orchestrated in part by President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, according to multiple sources, one of whom said the two senior administration officials have "been clashing heads since day one."
White House officials reportedly confirmed Thursday that there are high-level discussions taking place about replacing Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, whose own position would be filled by Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton.
Both men have developed close relationships with Trump and appear to be on board with the plan, a former White House aide told the Washington Examiner.
"The initial narrative had focused on [United Nations Ambassador Nikki] Haley going over to the State Department, but Pompeo has continued to increase his influence within the administration over the last several months," the aide said.
Trump even considered Pompeo seriously as a candidate for chief of staff after he decided to replace his first pick for that role, Reince Priebus. Sources close to the White House have long described the relationship between Trump and Pompeo as warm and productive.
"The thing about Pompeo is he spends so much of his day with the president, talking about intelligence and international affairs," said the former White House aide.
The former Kansas congressman has also demonstrated a willingness to wade into politics to shield his boss during rocky moments. In early August, for example, Pompeo was one of the few administration officials who readily defended Trump on Sunday talk shows amid a firestorm over the president's reaction to racial violence in Charlottesville, Va.
Tillerson, on the other hand, said Trump only "speaks for himself" on the issue of white nationalism, a comment that was widely interpreted as a repudiation of Trump's decision to condemn "both sides" for a neo-Nazi rally that spun out of control and claimed the life of an anti-racist protester.
Trump has also pushed back publicly against Tillerson's foreign policy overtures in the past. On North Korea especially, the president and Tillerson have often appeared to pursue completely divergent paths toward curbing the nuclear ambitions of Pyongyang. Tillerson has repeatedly stressed the importance of relying on diplomatic channels to ease tensions with Kim Jong Un's regime, while Trump has made overt threats ranging from ensuring the "total destruction" of the hermit kingdom to petty name-calling of its dictator.
More recently, Trump told Fox News' Laura Ingraham that neither Tillerson nor any other State Department staffers had control of his administration's foreign policy.
"Let me tell you, the one that matters is me," Trump said in response to a question about the lack of appointees at Foggy Bottom. "I'm the only one that matters, because when it comes down to it, that's what the policy is going to be."
The New York Times first reported the major shake-up on Thursday, following months of speculation that Tillerson was headed for the door. The former Exxon Mobil chief was accused in early October of insulting Trump's intelligence by calling him a "moron" during a closed-door meeting with defense officials, a claim he later said was part of "the games of Washington" but repeatedly refused to deny.
But the former White House aide said it was Tillerson's decision last week to avoid sending a senior delegation to India for Ivanka Trump's trip to the annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit that has led Kushner to push hard for the secretary of state's firing.
"There was increasing talk that Rex wasn't going to be on the job for long, but the Ivanka story, that was kind of the last straw. It sort of sealed the deal," the aide said, adding, "This is Jared, 100 percent. [He and Tillerson] have been clashing heads since day one."