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© Reuters
Accusations prior to the US presidential election that President Donald Trump would fire the secretary of defense and the directors of the CIA and FBI after them were confirmed today by a third. He announced that he had “lost” (the word used ends, “finish the term”, but in administrative communication the meaning is much more negative) Mark Esper.
This was immediately taken as confirmation that in the remaining months of his tenure in the White House, he will settle the accounts of his administration.
Christopher Miller, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, has been named interim director. But his formal confirmation of the position, which requires the consent of the Senate, is unlikely to occur before January 20, 2021, when Joe Biden takes office.
The disputes between Trump and Esper have escalated due to the Secretary of Defense’s public disapproval of the president using the military to disperse street protests following the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. It was also commented that Esper disapproved of the president’s disapproval of renaming army sites and bases after military leaders from the slave-owning south, which lost the Civil War in the mid-19th century.
The fact that the minister has prepared his resignation has been written and talked about for a long time, but yesterday it was categorically denied by the Pentagon.
His predecessor, Jim Mathis, left in 2018 due to political disagreements with the president, including over Syria. In June, the old gen. Mathis criticizes Trump for being “the first president in my life who does not try to unite the American people and does not even try to fix it, but tries to divide us.
© Reuters
Christopher Miller upon arrival at the Pentagon.
Espar also disagreed with the disdain for NATO and expressed concern about the White House’s tendency to view US defense alliances through the prism of US benefits. He supported calls for the Allies to increase their defense spending, but did not accept that Washington must first receive a material gesture or a large arms order to consider an ally credible, Reuters sources said.
Miller has already come to the Pentagon to take office. The Defense Department has no comment on Trump’s decision. It is unclear if Esper was in his office at the time.
The new action The minister took office only on August 10, 2020, and before that he was Assistant Minister of Defense for Special Operations and the Fight against Terrorism. In 2018-2019, he was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Counterterrorism and International Threats at the National Security Council with responsibility for the formulation and implementation of policies at the strategic level.
Miller was a former military man (1983-2014), started as an infantryman in the reserve, was transferred to special forces in 1993 and participated in the first battles in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 in airborne units. He has been to both countries on multiple missions and has experience in the combined work of various agencies.
Miller holds a BA in history from George W. Washington University, an MA in national security from the Navy College, and a graduate of Army Command.
