Meet Tom Cotton, the Arkansas senator with Trump's ear who graduated from Harvard in 3 years and might become the next head of the CIA

President Donald Trump may be replacing secretary of state Rex Tillerson with current CIA director Mike Pompeo by the end of the year, The New York Times reported on Thursday. Pompeo's probable successor? Young Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.

The White House denied the report, and has tamped down rumors that Tillerson is exiting the administration for months. But Cotton is a rising conservative star, and has emerged as one of Trump's closest congressional advisers on foreign policy and national security.

If Trump offered him the CIA position, he would accept it, according to the Times. After the report, Cotton's spokesman said that his "focus is on serving Arkansans in the Senate."

The junior senator has found himself at the center of national politics and policy in Trump's DC, and has come a long way since his small-town beginnings in Arkansas.

Here's a rundown of his impressive career so far: