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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A day after President Donald Trump fired his defense secretary, the White House on Tuesday installed a Trump loyalist in a key Pentagon post and promoted another that falsely called former President Barack a terrorist. Obama
Trump announced the removal of Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Twitter on Monday, indicating that he can use his last months in office to settle scores within his administration.
But the new shakeup at the Pentagon is raising concerns among Democrats about whether America’s national security policy may become unstable when Republican Trump leaves office.
It could also make it easier for Trump to carry out policies Esper had opposed, such as the deployment of active duty troops to suppress street protests in the United States.
Trump’s move sent a dangerous message to America’s adversaries and dampened hopes for an orderly transition as Democratic President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office, Democrats said.
“It’s hard to overstate how dangerous high-level turnover in the Defense Department is during a presidential transition period,” said Rep. Adam Smith, the Democrat who heads the House Armed Services Committee.
Esper was replaced by Christopher Miller, who had been the director of the National Counterterrorism Center. The Pentagon said Kash Patel, who was the top counterterrorism adviser to the White House National Security Council, would be Miller’s chief of staff.
Patel served as a senior aide to Rep. Devin Nunes, the pro-Trump Republican who chaired the House Intelligence Committee and is now its top minority member. While working for Nunes, Patel helped produce a memorandum accusing the FBI and the Justice Department of bias against Trump.
Following Esper’s departure, the Pentagon’s top policy adviser resigned, allowing that position to be filled by Anthony Tata, a retired army brigadier general who has called Obama a “terrorist leader.”
Tata failed to secure a Senate confirmation hearing in August and was serving as deputy undersecretary of defense for policy.
The shakeup raises the possibility that Trump will try to deliver on unfulfilled campaign promises by Jan. 20, when Biden takes office. These include the possibility of ordering a total withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.
Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat who served as a senior Pentagon official in the Obama administration, asked Miller to put national security interests before loyalty to Trump, saying “the country and military to which he has dedicated his life They are counting on him to do the right thing. “
(Information from Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; additional information from Mark Hosenball; edited by Mary Milliken and Grant McCool)
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