Trump fires Defense Secretary Mark Esper, the first in an expected purge

President Trump announced on Twitter Monday that Defense Secretary Mark Esper “has been terminated.” He added: “I would like to thank him for his service.”

Esper, Trump’s second Pentagon chief, is among the first in an expected purge of security officials after the president’s loss in the 2020 election to former Vice President Joe Biden.

Trump said Esper would be replaced by Christopher Miller, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, “effective immediately.”

“Chris will do a GREAT job!” Trump tweeted. “Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service.”

Esper, a West Point graduate who once served in the 101st Airborne Division, his tenure at the Pentagon was tenuous from the outset.

Esper drew Trump’s ire after implicitly criticizing the president’s threat to use active-duty troops this spring to respond to unrest and protests over injustice and police brutality. Esper’s comments came after he walked with the president across a square in front of the White House to a historic church for photographs. Authorities had used tear gas to disperse protestors for the photo op.

Using active-duty troops for domestic law enforcement, Esper said at a June press conference at the Pentagon, should be “a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire of situations.”

As for others in the administration, FBI Director Christopher Wray has been at odds with the president as has Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Esper told the Military Times that “preserving my integrity” was front of mind.

“I guess my top line is, as I look back, I see it ― you know, despite a series of crises and conflicts ― and yes, occasional tension with the White House ― I think we’ve been really successful in transforming the department, implementing my top priority as the NDS, if you will, and then protecting the institution, which is really important to me,” he said.

The National Defense Strategy (NDS), the military states, “provides a clear road map for the Department of Defense to meet the challenges posed by a re-emergence of long-term strategic competition with China and Russia. The National Defense Strategy acknowledges an increasingly complex global security environment, characterized by overt challenges to the free and open international order.”

The military is also playing a pivotal part in Operation Warp Speed vaccine development — specifically the mass distribution of all approved COVID-19 vaccines.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2JHUSkz