--- title: Fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Will Forfeit Up to $180 Million if He Returns to the Oil Industry description: President Donald Trump fired former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State. Mike Pompeo will replace Tillerson. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2018-03-13T15:35:17.000Z' modified: '2024-05-16T13:03:23.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - Donald Trump - exxon - Mike Pompeo - Rex Tillerson - trump - Trump Administration - trump white house word_count: 483 canonical: https://money.com/rex-tillerson-fired-secretary-of-state-donald-trump-exxon-mobil/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Trump Designates North Korea as State Sponsor of Terror During Cabinet Meeting](https://img.money.com/2018/03/rextillersonfired-em-876733038.jpg) *Secretary of State Rex Tillerson listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House on November 20, 2017.* Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of Exxon Mobil, is being [removed as Secretary of State](https://time.com/5197201/president-trump-removes-secretary-of-state-rex-tillerson/) by President Donald Trump. It's unclear what Tillerson will do after leaving the administration, but don't expect him to head back to his old industry: A clause in his Exxon exit agreement stipulates that Tillerson would forfeit up to $180 million if he takes a job in the oil business again within 10 years. When Tillerson accepted the job as Trump's Secretary of State in early 2017, he resigned as head of Exxon Mobil and agreed to a retirement package worth $180 million, representing the value of two million shares Tillerson would have inherited if he stayed at Exxon. But as the [*Associated Press*](http://fortune.com/2017/01/04/donald-trump-rex-tillerson-exxon-mobil-180-million/) reported, the money was placed in a trust in order to avoid conflict-of-interest issues. Tillerson's exit agreement stated that the money in the trust would be paid out over 10 years—or given to charity if Tillerson took another job in the oil and gas industry within that period. Tillerson was one of several wealthy former corporate executives in the Trump administration, which is by far the [richest presidential cabinet](https://money.com/donald-trump-net-worth-presidential-cabinet-compared/) in American history. Rex Tillerson had a net worth of $330 million as of last year, according to [Forbes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2017/01/04/secretary-of-state-appointee-rex-tillerson-reaches-180-million-severance-deal-with-exxon/). Combine Rex Tillerson's net worth with that of other Trump administration appointees such as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (net worth estimated between [$1 billion](https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2016/12/22/heres-how-much-trumps-cabinet-is-really-worth/#51ab4ea87169) and [$5 billion](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trumps-cabinet-14-billion-of-wealth-and-counting/)) and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross ([net worth: $700 million to $2.9 billion](https://money.com/wilbur-ross-net-worth-forbes-2-billion-transfer/)), and the collective wealth of Trump's cabinet was once estimated as high as [$14.5 billion](https://money.com/donald-trump-net-worth-presidential-cabinet-compared/). This total does not even include the estimated wealth of Donald Trump ([net worth: $3.1 billion](https://money.com/donald-trump-net-worth-2018/)). It has been rumored for months that Trump wanted to fire Rex Tillerson. The [*New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/us/politics/state-department-tillerson-pompeo-trump.html) reported last November that the Trump White House planned to oust Tillerson and replace him at Secretary of State with Mike Pompeo, the CIA director, former congressman, and member of the Republican Tea Party from Kansas. On Tuesday, Trump confirmed in a Tweet that this switch would indeed take place, and that long-time CIA veteran Gina Haspel would replace Pompeo and become the first woman to be CIA director. Tillerson's removal is the latest in a long string of Trump administration departures. As of last week, 35 Trump staffers had come and gone since Donald Trump entered the White House, [CNN reported](https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/07/politics/trump-white-house-staff-departures/index.html), including the recently announced high-profile resignations of communications director Hope Hicks and top economic adviser Gary Cohn. It is said that during his year as Secretary of State, Tillerson clashed with Trump over multiple issues, including [how to handle North Korea](https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/13/trump-says-tillerson-out-as-secretary-of-state-458353) and whether or not Russia should be [blamed for the nerve agent attack](https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/12/politics/rex-tillerson-white-house-russia-nerve-agent-attack/) on a former Russian spy in the UK. It has also been widely reported that [Tillerson called Trump a "moron"](https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/04/politics/tillerson-trump-moron/index.html) in a Pentagon meeting, and Tillerson has [never explicitly denied](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/tillerson-again-refuses-answer-if-he-called-trump-moron-n810806) the claim. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/rex-tillerson-fired-secretary-of-state-donald-trump-exxon-mobil/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Politics", "item": "https://money.com/politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Will Forfeit Up to $180 Million if He Returns to the Oil Industry" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/rex-tillerson-fired-secretary-of-state-donald-trump-exxon-mobil/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/rex-tillerson-fired-secretary-of-state-donald-trump-exxon-mobil/", "name": "Fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Will Forfeit Up to $180 Million if He Returns to the Oil Industry", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2018-03-13T15:35:17.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/rex-tillerson-fired-secretary-of-state-donald-trump-exxon-mobil/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/rex-tillerson-fired-secretary-of-state-donald-trump-exxon-mobil/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-16T13:03:23.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Will Forfeit Up to $180 Million if He Returns to the Oil Industry", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2018/03/rextillersonfired-em-876733038.jpg", "width": 3500, "height": 2400, "caption": "Trump Designates North Korea as State Sponsor of Terror During Cabinet Meeting" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2018-03-13T15:35:17.000Z", "description": "President Donald Trump fired former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State. 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