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Donald Trump has fired his defense secretary, Mark Esper.
in a cheep Monday afternoon, the president wrote that he was “pleased to announce that Christopher C. Miller, the highly respected director of the National Counterterrorism Center (confirmed unanimously by the Senate), will be acting secretary of defense, effective immediately.
“Chris will do a GREAT job! Mark Esper has been fired. I would like to thank you for your service. “
Although Trump has not admitted defeat in the presidential election, Miller will only have a little over two months in office before Joe Biden enters the White House.
Esper was Trump’s second permanent defense secretary, after James Mattis, a retired US Marine Corps general who resigned in late 2018. Mattis was replaced by Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive who spent months in office, but was not formally confirmed by the Senate. .
Trump nearly fired Esper on June 3 when the former Raytheon arms executive publicly contradicted the president about the potential use of the Insurrection Act of 1807 to deploy active duty military units against protests in Washington and other cities. .
Esper said circumstances did not justify the use of the law, which can empower a president to send troops to states against the wishes of local authorities. Trump had threatened to invoke the law two days earlier. Following Esper’s statements, the White House pointed out that it was a decision by the president alone.
Esper had also given orders for a battalion from the 82nd Airborne Division and military police units to return to the base after being airlifted to the Washington area. He revoked the withdrawal order after visiting the White House, but the troops withdrew a few days later.
According to reports citing administration sources at the time, Trump’s aides advised him not to fire his second defense secretary, and his own advisers urged Esper not to resign. According to the Wall Street Journal, he had already started writing a resignation letter.
Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley were heavily criticized by former senior defense officials and military leaders for appearing with Trump on June 1 in a photo session outside a church near the House. Blanca, after the surroundings. Police and other federal security forces had cleaned the area with tear gas, mounted police, and baton charges.
Later, Milley apologized for her appearance and said she shouldn’t have been there.
In a third source of friction, Esper said he was open to discussing renaming military bases after Confederate army officers. The White House had ruled out any name changes.
Esper became Secretary of Defense in July 2019, succeeding Acting Secretary Shanahan. He had taken office following the resignation of James Mattis, who left the administration over Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from northern Syria, abandoning the Kurdish allies who had led the fight against Isis.
After a long silence, Mattis accused Trump of abusing the executive position and making a “mockery of the constitution” in the administration’s response to George Floyd’s protests.
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