President Trump tweeted that he thinks former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson — who criticized the president in a comments reported earlier — was “dumb as a rock” and “lazy as hell” in his role at the State Department.

“So often, the president would say here’s what I want to do and here’s how I want to do it and I would have to say to him, Mr. President I understand what you want to do but you can’t do it that way. It violates the law.”

— Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, quoted by the Houston Chronicle.

“If our leaders seek to conceal the truth or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom.”

— Former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, quoted by NBC News, giving the commencement address at the Virginia Military Institute.

“Rex Tillerson has all but vanished from the State Department’s website as his unceremonious firing by tweet took effect over the weekend,” the AP reports.

“The ‘Secretary of State Tillerson’ link at the top of the department’s homepage disappeared overnight Saturday and was replaced with a generic ‘Secretary of State’ tab. When clicked, it leads to a page that informs visitors in a brief statement that Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan ‘became acting Secretary of State on April 1, 2018.’ It shows a photo of Sullivan signing his appointment papers as deputy in June 2017 but offers no explanation for the change in leadership.”

In a farewell speech to department staff, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson wasn’t subtle expressing his view about the way he was summarily dismissed from his job by President Trump, Marketwatch reports.

Said Tillerson: “This can be a very mean-spirited town. But you don’t have to choose to participate in that. Each of us gets to choose the person we want to be, the way we want to be treated, and the way we want to treat others.”

Washington Post: “Trump initially was drawn to Tillerson because of his stature as chief executive of ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest companies, and his work as a global dealmaker. He told friends that the broad-shouldered, silver-haired Tillerson could be a diplomat out of central casting.”

“Yet Trump quickly soured on Tillerson and made no secret of his dislike. He mocked his mannerisms and Texas drawl, saying his secretary of state talked too slowly. In conversations with advisers and friends, the president would often list others he said would do a better job than Tillerson, whom he frequently labeled ‘weak.’”

“One source of weakness, the president felt, was Tillerson’s media profile. Trump told one adviser he was ‘amazed’ at how much negative press Tillerson received.”

The State Department said that Rex Tillerson only learned of his termination when he read President Trump’s tweet on Tuesday morning, the AP reports.

“Two senior department officials said Tillerson received a call from John Kelly, Trump’s chief of staff, on Friday, but was only told that there might be a presidential tweet that would concern him. Kelly didn’t tell Tillerson what the tweet might say or when it might actually publish.”

Washington Post: “In the end, no one was more surprised that Tillerson was fired than Tillerson himself.”

President Trump took questions from reporters after he fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson:

REPORTER: Did you fire him because he called you a moron?

TRUMP: What?

REPORTER: Did you fire him because he called you a moron?

TRUMP: Say it again.

REPORTER: (inaudible) Why now?