BREAKING: Trump Announces the Termination of U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper
Today, President Donald Trump finally gave U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper his walking papers and appointed Christopher C. Miller, the Director of National Counterterrorism Center, as Acting Secretary of Defense.
I am pleased to announce that Christopher C. Miller, the highly respected Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (unanimously confirmed by the Senate), will be Acting Secretary of Defense, effective immediately,” Trump announced in a Tweet.
…Chris will do a GREAT job! Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service.”
…Chris will do a GREAT job! Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2020
As reported by Defense News in “Esper Fired as Defense Secretary,”
Esper’s removal had been widely expected, as he appeared to fall out of favor with Trump following the June 1 incident when Esper joined Trump for a photo op at a church located near the White House. The photo op involved crossing historic Lafayette Park, which at the time was occupied by protestors who were cleared out by law enforcement to make space for Trump and his retinue.
The secretary’s participation, along with that of Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, instantly set of criticisms about whether the two men were allowing the military to be used for political gain. Among those blasting the move wasretired Adm. Mike Mullen, the 17th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who blasted Esper’s statement on a call with governors in which the secretary said the government must ‘dominate’ the ‘battle space.’
On June 3, Esper held a press conference in which he appeared to publicly split with Trump about the idea of invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow the president to use active duty military personnel for crowd control. ‘The option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire of situations. We are not in one of those situations now,’ Esper said. ‘I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act.’
Those comments appeared to doom Esper’s long-term prospects, with multiple outlets reporting that White House staff were furious with Esper and the president himself was mad and considering dumping the former Raytheon lobbyist. While Esper held onto the job then, his public appearances afterward were more guarded; he held only one more open press briefing, in July, and largely avoided taking questions from reporters who travelled with him.
In October, Esper launched a series of speeches at various D.C. think tanks, which seemed designed at burnishing his legacy as having successfully implemented the National Defense Strategy; during those events he took no questions submitted by the audience, and questions from the moderator were almost uniformly tied to thespecific subject Esper wished to discuss.
The only question remaining is who gets the boot the next, FBI Director Christopher Wray?
With the rise of anti-Americanism, antisemitism and anti-Israel/Zionist propaganda both on and offline, Lisa Michelle has also been an active advocate for America, Israel, and the Jewish community, managing various pro-Israel social networking forums and projects. Continue reading about Lisa Michelle here.
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