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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump said on Monday he had “fired” Defense Secretary Mark Esper, noting that he could use his last months in office after the loss at the polls to adjust accounts within its administration.
Trump had parted ways with Esper on a variety of issues and was particularly angered by his public opposition to Trump’s threats to use active duty military forces this summer to suppress street protests over racial injustice after George was killed by police. Floyd in Minneapolis.
Democrats reacted with alarm, saying Trump’s move sent a dangerous message to America’s adversaries and clouded hopes for an orderly transition as President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office.
“The abrupt firing of Secretary Esper is disturbing evidence that President Trump intends to use his last days in office to wreak havoc on our American democracy and around the world,” said the Speaker of the House of Representatives , Nancy Pelosi.
Representative Adam Smith, the Democrat who heads the House Armed Services Committee, condemned Trump’s decision as “childish” and “reckless.”
Trump said on Twitter that Christopher Miller, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, will take over as acting secretary of defense.
“Mark Esper has been fired,” Trump tweeted, adding that Miller would be acting secretary “effective immediately.”
US defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows called Esper minutes in advance to alert him that Trump would fire him via Twitter.
When Trump launched a swift and unceremonious exit for Esper, Miller arrived at the Pentagon building just an hour after Trump’s announcement, before the Pentagon itself had issued a statement acknowledging Esper’s firing.
It was unclear if Esper was still in the building when Miller arrived.
Sources said Esper had long been preparing for his resignation or impeachment after last week’s election, particularly if Trump won a second term. However, the fact that he fired Esper even after losing the election was not a given.
In a letter to the Defense Department issued Monday night, Esper said he was stepping aside knowing that “there is much more we can accomplish.”
Esper praised the military for remaining “apolitical,” a refrain he used to use and which Trump’s opponents saw as an implicit criticism of the president’s attempts to portray the military as his constituency amid defense budget increases.
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Paul Frymer, a professor of politics at Princeton University, said Trump’s firing via Twitter was “typical of his entire presidency” and warned it could spell danger to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. , who has also clashed with Trump.
“He can’t control his impulses or temper and he demands loyalty from him above politics, the constitution or anything else,” Frymer said.
Trump has had an uneasy relationship with the Pentagon, where Esper and top brass have repeatedly sought to avoid being seen as a political instrument of the Trump administration.
Esper’s predecessor Jim Mattis resigned in 2018 over political differences with Trump, including in Syria. Mattis in June blasted Trump as the “first president in my life who doesn’t try to unite the American people, doesn’t even try to try. Instead, he tries to divide us.”
Like Mattis, Esper also disagreed with Trump’s dismissive attitude toward the NATO alliance and was suspicious of Trump’s penchant for viewing American military alliances through an explicitly transactional lens, even while endorsing Trump’s calls. to allies to increase defense spending, the sources said.
But he also parted ways with Trump over headline-grabbing issues, including Esper’s desire to protect Alexander Vindman, then a White House lieutenant colonel, from retaliation for his testimony in Trump’s impeachment inquiry.
Michael O’Hanlon of the think tank Brookings Institute said he did not think Trump was likely to embark on a harmful restructuring of US national security policy despite firing Esper.
“You’ll want to believe that you have some kind of reasonable legacy – in the economy, in strengthening the military, in not starting any new wars,” O’Hanlon said, noting that Trump might want to try running again for office in 2024.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, Daphne Psaledakis, Patricia Zengerle, and Susan Heavey; edited by Cynthia Osterman and Tom Brown)
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