Secretary of State Rex Tillerson may be (ahem) intact, but his relationship with President Trump has turned famously testy. Trump has been weighing replacing Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, Axios reported after the Trump-Tillerson rift widened publicly, and now, Axios' Mike Allen said Monday morning, Trump is mulling Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) to replace Pompeo at the CIA. Cotton, 40, is open to the switch, a "longtime friend" tells Axios: "This guy quit his fancy law firm to serve his country in the wake of 9/11. He does his duty when the country calls."
Conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt, who speaks with Cotton and first floated him for the CIA job, according to Axios, said that Trump is comfortable with Cotton and talks to him on the phone several times a week. Both Cotton and Pompeo, a former congressman, "like and listen to the president" and "accept his realism in foreign affairs," Hewitt tells Axios. You can read more about the Trump administration scuttlebutt at Axios.
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