The White House has proposed a plan to replace current Foreign Secretary Rex Tillerson with CIA director Mike Pompeo in the next few weeks, the New York Times reported.
The newspaper quoted senior officials in the Donald Trump administration as saying that Republican Senator Tom Coton is the successor to Pompeo in the chair of the Director of the Intelligence Agency, according to the plan put forward, and has confirmed its readiness to do so.
Trump will lose by appointing Coton as intelligence chief, his main ally in Congress, the newspaper said, stressing that debate is still going on whether to keep the senator in office, but now remains the only option to take over the CIA's chair in Langley.
The newspaper said it was not clear whether Trump had finally agreed to the plan, but relations between the US President and Secretary of State Tillerson witnessed a marked increase and appears to be Mr. White House is generally willing to remove Tillerson.
The White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly, has drawn up a transition plan and has been briefed by other officials, the newspaper said, expecting the amendments to take place later this year or early next year.
The paper said there were differences between Trump and Tillerson on some of the most important issues of the US foreign agenda, including the nuclear agreement with Iran and North Korea and the Gulf crisis.
Pompey, who held a three-term term in Congress, impressed Trump with his daily White House briefings, making him a trusted adviser to the president and even beyond the CIA's responsibilities, including health care.
Pompeo has been criticized in his agency for being "too much political figure" to fulfill his responsibilities in this post.
The paper said that Tilerson, if left office in the period mentioned, will lead the list of American foreign ministers with the shortest term, and their departure is not related to the change of president, in more than a century.
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