Tara McKelvey
BBC News, White House

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With Pompeo moving on to the secretary of state position, Trump announced his intention to fill the CIA director post with Gina Haspel, a career intelligence officer with more than 30 years of experience.

The White House shakeup has profound implications - particularly for the CIA.

The agency's work is conducted with nominal oversight, and many decisions hinge on the discretion of the director.

This morning the president spoke approvingly of the acting director, Haspel, pointing out that she's a woman in a high leadership position.

As an intelligence officer, she was known for her harsh views: she ran a notorious black site in Thailand, a place where prisoners were waterboarded.

She's now working for a president who's been ambivalent about the matter. He said in the past he wanted to bring back waterboarding.

James Mattis, the defence secretary, convinced him otherwise.

Who's to say the president wouldn't change his mind again - if Haspel and other intelligence officials persuaded him it was necessary?

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According to the Associated Press news agency (AP), White House Chief of Staff John Kelly called Tillerson on Friday to advise him to look out for a Trump tweet.

Tillerson was "only told that there might be a presidential tweet that would concern him", according to the AP, external.

"Kelly didn’t tell Tillerson what the tweet might say or when it might actually publish, according to the official," they report, citing a department official.

Then you may have heard about Tillerson's firing before he did.

An AP reporter travelling with Tillerson back from Africa says there was zero indication on board the plane that the secretary of state was returning home to Washington early because he was being let go.

"I felt like, look, I just need to get back," he told reporter Josh Lederman.

But according to US media, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly had called him on Friday to warn him that his sacking was imminent, but reportedly did not set a timetable.

Was it morongate? Was it the Iran deal? Was it the N Korea talks?

A senior White House adviser told the BBC's White House correspondent Tara McKelvey that "the president wanted to make sure to have his new team in place in advance of the upcoming talks with North Korea and various ongoing trade negotiations".

But others have speculated that Tillerson's firing may have had more to do with his working relationship with his boss.

Tillerson never disputed that he called the president a "moron", and once held a news conference to claim that he was not considering resigning.

Explaining his decision to reporters, Trump said he and Tillerson "disagreed on things" such as the Iran nuclear deal.

"I think it's terrible. I guess he thought it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently.

"So we were not really thinking the same."

Tillerson began his last trip as secretary of state on 8 March by meeting the chief of the African Union in Ethiopia.

African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki said in a news conference that the continent had moved on past a derogatory slur that Trump reportedly made about its countries in a White House meeting.

“I believe that this incident is of the past," he said, standing beside Tillerson.

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• Rex Tillerson - Trump's former top diplomat
• Mike Pompeo - Trump's loyalist new diplomat
• Gina Haspel - first female CIA director nominee

Image source, EPA

Tillerson may find it tempting to retire to his cattle farm in Texas to spend time with his four children.

Pompeo still faces confirmation from the US Senate, which previously confirmed him for his job as CIA director.

He is expected to face questions regarding the justice department investigation of alleged Russian meddling in the US election, and whether the Trump team attempted to obstruct justice.

Pompeo is considered by investigator Robert Mueller to be a "peripheral witness" to Trump's firing of James Comey as FBI director, NBC has reported.

Gina Haspel, who was tapped by Trump to become the first woman to lead the CIA, also must be confirmed by the senate.

According to a New York Times profile, external of Haspel from last year, the deputy CIA director had played a key role in America's "extraordinary rendition" programme, in which terror suspects were handed over to foreign governments and held in secret facilities where they were tortured.

She will be questioned by Democrats over her work overseeing brutal interrogations of US detainees.

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Secretary of State Colin Powell (George W Bush) - 1467 days

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (George W Bush) - 1455 days

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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (Barack Obama) - 1472 days

Secretary of State John Kerry (Barack Obama) - 1449 days

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Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (Donald Trump) - 405 days

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Mr Tillerson met the Nigerian president on Monday in Abuja, but announced yesterday that he was cutting short the trip after being taken ill, and he cancelled events in Kenya on Saturday.

He arrived back in Washington before dawn on Tuesday to learn he was out of a job.

On Monday, Tillerson appeared to depart from White House talking points when he backed British authorities in blaming the Kremlin for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in southern England.

The secretary of state said the nerve agent attack "clearly came from Russia" and "certainly will trigger a response".

One day earlier, the White House had declined to blame Russia for the attack.

Trump on Tuesday still wouldn't directly blame Russia, but said that he would agree with British findings.

Top Democrats in the House of Representatives and the US Senate have responded to the news. One warns of "instability" in the Trump administration.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

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Rex Tillerson, who as a long-time corporate executive was an unconventional pick for secretary of state, seemed like he was on thin ice from very early on.

He was distrusted by veteran State Department employees, who viewed him as an outside interloper with little affinity for the organisation he headed.

The president, initially enamoured with the brash Texan, quickly appeared to sour on his pick, as he frequently broke with the White House line on foreign policy.

Reportedly calling the president a moron (intensified by a choice expletive) certainly didn't help, either.

Just last week Trump tweeted that he had a few more staff changes he wanted to make. Now it's getting clearer that he had one move in particular in mind.

UN ambassador Nikki Haley and Senator Marco Rubio expressed support for Trump's appointment of CIA Director Mike Pompeo as the new Secretary of State.

Vice President Mike Pence thanked Rex Tillerson for his service and welcomed Mike Pompeo to the new role. He also greeted Gina Haspel as the new CIA Director.

Trump's former spokesman Sean Spicer has drawn attention on Twitter for praising Tillerson as a man who "severed our nation well".

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded by joking: "Have they started blaming Russia yet for the reshuffles in Washington?"

In a statement to Russian news agency Interfax, she ironically repeated the words of British Prime Minister Theresa May, who was speaking about the poisoning of a Russian spy, by adding: "Highly likely Russia".

Russian spy:

Mike Pompeo was a hardline Republican congressman before leading the CIA under Trump.

Hours before Mr Trump announced that he would meet the leader of North Korea, Mr Pompeo was seen in the Oval Office for a meeting with a South Korean delegation.

Mr Pompeo is seen as a Trump loyalist who performed a delicate balancing act at the CIA in managing frayed relations between the spy agency and a commander-in-chief who compared America's intelligence services to Nazis.

He has in the past played down findings by the CIA that the Russians attempted to influence last year's US election. But when push comes to shove, he has shown a willingness to contradict the president on the issue.

Mike Pompeo: America's Trump loyalist spymaster

According to State Department Under Secretary Steve Goldstein, Tillerson "did not speak to the president this morning and is unaware of the reason" for being sacked.

"But he is grateful for the opportunity to serve, and still believes strongly that public service is a noble calling," Goldstein adds.

Tillerson is due to return to Washington today.

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Welcome to the BBC News live coverage of President Trump's sacking of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Trump announced his replacement on Twitter Tuesday morning as CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

He said the new state secretary would do "a fantastic job".

Tillerson, a former chief executive of ExxonMobil, was only appointed to the job just over a year ago.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Tuesday, Mr Trump said his differences with Mr Tillerson came down to personal "chemistry".

"We got along actually quite well, but we disagreed on things," said the president.