This morning, we learned that President Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and replaced him with CIA director Mike Pompeo. Speaking to reporters, Trump chalked up his departure to repeated disagreements — though Tillerson is also famously reported to have once called the president a “fucking moron.”
Anyway, it was reasonable that there was some some curiosity around the question over whether the alleged moron comment led to Tillerson’s firing in any way. But — as this spectacularly awkward exchange from the New York Times transcript of Trump speaking to reporters illustrates — we may never get a straightforward answer:
REPORTER: Did you fire him because he called you a moron?
MR. TRUMP: What?
REPORTER: Did you fire him because he called you a moron?
MR. TRUMP: Say it again.
Sadly, they did not appear to say it again.
