“Rick has done a fantastic job at Energy but it was time – three years is a long time,” Trump said, speaking in Texas. “We already have his replacement.”

The announcement came a day after the publication of an interview in which Perry said that – on Trump's orders – he had communicated with the president's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani over alleged corruption in Ukraine.

Trump is threatened with impeachment for pressuring the Ukrainian president to investigate his Democratic rivals ahead of the 2020 US elections.

House Democrats conducting the impeachment inquiry issued a subpoena to Perry last week, asking him to turn over documents related to his dealings with Ukraine by October 18.

Perry drove forward Trump's “energy dominance” policy, which included boosting sales of US fossil fuels to Ukraine and other countries, and he oversaw a sharp rise in production of fossil fuels.