POTUS Nominates Gina Haspel as First Woman CIA Director

President Donald Trump announced via Twitter that Gina Haspel would be taking the place of Mike Pompeo.

• By Sydny Shepard
• Mar 14, 2018

In an unexpected tweet, the president announced to his followers that Rex Tillerson was out as Secretary of State and that Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, would be taking his place, leaving a vacancy at the agency. Trump filled the vacancy in the same tweet, nominating Gina Haspel as the new CIA chief.

Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 13, 2018

Haspel, if confirmed by the Senate, would become the first woman to lead the CIA, a milestone Trump pointed out in his original announcement.

"I am grateful to President Trump for the opportunity, and humbled by his confidence in me, to be nominated to be the next Director of the Central Intelligence Agency," Haspel said in a statement Tuesday. "If confirmed, I look forward to providing President Trump the outstanding intelligence support he has grown to expect during his first year in office," Haspel said in a statement Tuesday.

Haspel has served as Pompeo's number two in the position of deputy director of the CIA for just over a year.