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The president of United States, Donald trump, announced this Monday the dismissal of his Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who will be replaced by the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Christopher Miller.
“Chris is going to do a GREAT job! Mark Esper was fired. I appreciate your service, ”the president unceremoniously tweeted, two days after the announcement of his loss to Joe Biden in the presidential elections.
Relations between Trump and Esper strained after the latter publicly opposed an army deployment in June to quell anti-racist protests in the country.
From that moment on, Esper’s loss of influence in the government was evident; disappeared from the media and only gave previously prepared speeches.
Despite the fact that his dismissal was expected by many, Caused a surprise when it came a week after the election, which Democrat Joe Biden won, and 10 weeks before Trump leaves the White House.
Christopher Miller will be Acting Secretary of Defense until January 20, when the new government takes office.
However, in fact Miller is the fifth chief of the Pentagon of the Trump administration, after the former general of the Marine Corps. Jim Mattis, the Boeing engineer Patrick Shanahan, and Chief of the Navy Richard Spencer, who briefly assumed the portfolio while awaiting confirmation from Esper in the Senate in July 2019.
Miller spent 31 years in the military, deploying to Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 as part of the special forces.
After his retirement, he became a consultant on clandestine operations and government intelligence.
In 2018 and 2019, he was an adviser to the White House on counterterrorism and transnational threats, and last year he became deputy undersecretary of defense for special operations.
In August, he was appointed head of the National Counterterrorism Center.
