Heads Roll as Trump Launches Post-Election Purge

President TrumpDonald John Trump Trump: New York Not To Receive COVID-19 Vaccine Immediately Biden Cites Yellen As Possible Treasury Secretary: Trump Report Puts Giuliani In Charge Of Election Prosecutions: MORE report is stepping up its war on the federal government after losing the 2020 election, rolling heads among key agencies with a late push to put staff and policies in place before leaving the White House.

The President’s dismissal of the Secretary of Defense Mark EsperMark EsperHaspel Not Present At Latest Trump Intelligence Briefing: Overnight Defense Reports: Another Defense Official Resigns | Pentagon chief says army “remains strong” despite purge | Top candidate for Biden DOD secretary would be historic pick Ex-CIA Director Brennan: Trump ‘settles accounts’ with Pentagon changes MORE and other senior Pentagon officials have warned Washington and potentially paved the way for the withdrawal of US troops from the country’s longest war in Afghanistan.

Rumors revolve around whether the director of the CIA Gina HaspelGina Cheri Haspel Heads Roll as Trump Launches Post-Election Purge Haspel Not Present at Latest Trump Intelligence Briefing: Reports DHS Cyber ​​Agency Director Expects ouster MORE could be the next step, as the president’s allies accuse him of obstructing efforts to declassify top-secret documents that they say would reveal wrongdoing in the Russia probe.

A reshuffle is underway within the Department of Homeland Security’s cyber division, where senior officials have challenged Trump’s baseless claims that Democrats fraudulently stole the election from him.

The president has installed loyalists in agencies overseeing government environmental and energy regulations, and there is speculation he could clean the house at the FBI or the health and social services.

Trump has long been frustrated with what he sees as entrenched government bureaucrats working behind the scenes to block his agenda.

With the elected president Joe bidenJoe BidenTrump: New York Won’t Immediately Receive COVID-19 Vaccine Biden Seeing Yellen As Possible Treasury Secretary: Report Obama Hits Trump For Refusing To Concede Says There Is ‘No Legal Basis’ ‘for the PLUS challenges ready to be sworn in on Jan.20, Trump allies say the president has nothing to lose and is on his way to war against government officials who he says are standing in the way of final policies he hopes to put implemented.

“The deep state is on the run,” said Bryan Lanza, adviser to Trump’s 2016 presidential transition team. “It’s about shutting down the things he’s been told he shouldn’t touch. For three years and nine months, Trump responded to the Deep State. Now Trump is on a rampage and the Deep State is responding.

Current and former Washington officials watch with concern, worried about what they see as Trump’s erratic behavior and the potential for unforeseen developments that could have national security implications at a time of deep turmoil and confusion.

Trump’s refusal to concede to President-elect Joe Biden adds to the feeling of unease. Biden has not received any information from the government on the intelligence, as is customary. Millions of Americans believe the election was stolen from Trump.

“Causing chaos may be Trump’s top priority,” said Dov Zakheim, Deputy Secretary of Defense in the administration of former President George W. Bush. “He doesn’t want anyone to be able to help Biden’s transition. You need government leftovers that can help new people arriving. It causes disruption and makes this transition very difficult.

Trump’s purge at the Pentagon may be the most important gesture he makes in the period of the lame duck, both for his legacy and for the US presence in the Middle East.

Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller has criticized the war in Afghanistan. The president explained how he wanted to see a complete withdrawal from this conflict, which has been going on since 2001.

“If he does not withdraw his troops from Afghanistan now, none of these measures will make sense,” said a Republican close to the White House. “The president’s supporters want him to bring our troops home and the American people are more than ready for it. There could be no better cornerstone for the President’s legacy than to be the man who ended America’s longest war.

Biden’s transition spokeswoman Jen Psaki criticized Esper’s layoffs, saying “it’s a concern to see the upheaval because there shouldn’t be any politicization of the military.”

National security experts are concerned about the prospect of newly installed, formerly junior defense officials executing a high-stakes military withdrawal under a tight deadline and under political pressure in a volatile region.

They say Miller’s civilian resume is extremely light on the leadership experience. And they say Trump has held other recently vacant positions he created with staunch supporters, such as retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, a frequent Fox News Channel commentator.

“He goes after his enemy list and canons anyone who has ever crossed paths with him or perceived to have crossed paths with him, and by expelling those people he can reward his most subservient loyalists or uplift people who are not. qualified, ”Zakheim said.

At the CIA, Trump’s allies are privately confident that Haspel will be deported, though there is a fierce behind-the-scenes fight for his fate.

Republicans close to the White House, including Trump’s oldest son Donald Trump Jr., have publicly called for Haspel’s sacking. They believe it is preventing Trump from declassifying explosive documents that would reshuffle Russia’s narrative by exposing the government’s wrongdoing in the investigation.

His. John cornynJohn CornynHaspel not present at Trump’s latest intelligence briefing: Reports that Senate GOP calls multiply to give Biden access to ABC Raddatz intelligence briefings: “ Is the president planning a military operation? ” MORE (R-Texas) is against declassification, saying it would reveal sensitive information about U.S. intelligence gathering.

“Intelligence must not be partisan,” Cornyn tweeted. “This is not about manipulation, it is about preserving the impartial and non-partisan information necessary to inform policy makers and so that they can protect the United States.”

But declassification is personal for some in Trump’s inner circle, who feel their lives have been turned upside down and their freedom endangered by the three-year investigation into Russian collusion.

“The untold damage to public confidence caused by the abuse and corruption of our criminal justice system by the Russian hoax requires all the sun we can muster and far outweighs the disclosure of all the techniques of intelligence, ”said John Dowd, senior counsel for Trump in the special advocate’s investigation.

GOP critics say beyond revealing national security secrets, firing Haspel and other senior national security officials is bad policy that will blow Republicans at a time when they try to win an election special events in Georgia which will determine the balance of power in the country. Senate.

“This is the kind of conduct that will come back not only to tarnish Trump’s legacy, it’s easy to see, but also to tarnish the party and its candidates,” John boltonJohn BoltonHillicon Valley: Four Major Tech Problems Facing the Biden Administration | Pressure mounts to reinstate the cyber-tsar in the White House | Facebook, Google to expand political advertising bans John Bolton accuses GOP of ‘pampering’ Trump as he ‘destroys US electoral system’ Pressure grows to reinstall White House cyber-tsar READ MORETrump’s former national security adviser said on NPR.

Elsewhere, the country’s top cybersecurity official, Christopher Krebs, has told people he believes he is fired by the White House.

There are reports that several other officials in DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) are resigning or being forced to resign.

Krebs’ team posted a “rumor control” page to counter disinformation around the election, including claims it was stolen from Trump by fraud.

Late Thursday, the CISA issued a statement saying there was no evidence that “a voting system has suppressed or lost votes, altered votes or been compromised in any way.”

Democrats are furious at Trump’s moves to CISA and rumors of further layoffs.

“It’s dangerous,” said the representative. Bennie thompsonBennie Gordon Thompson’s Democrats at Home Introduce Bill to Invest $ 0 Billion in STEM Research and Education Espy’s long-term campaign sees a nationwide boost in weeks before House Speaker elections asks secret services for a briefing on COVID-19 guarantees for agents (D-Miss.), Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security. “The president’s refusal to put the country ahead of the ego is a threat to national security.”

The upheavals spread to the field of energy and the environment, where the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has been ousted Neil ChatterjeeIndranil (Neil) ChatterjeeHeads Rolls As Trump Launches Post-Election Purge Trump Runs The Clock On Remaining Environmental Setbacks OVER NIGHT ENERGY: White House Removes Chief from Major Climate Report | Trump administration faces lawsuit for removing endangered species protection for gray wolves READ MORE says he was impeached for signaling his support for carbon pricing, which is bad for the coal industry.

The White House recently demoted Michael Kuperberg, a scientist working on a report on climate change.

“A lot of the Trump administration’s failures are because the president never got hold of the presidential staff process,” said Myron Ebell, who led the agency’s transition team environmental protection for Trump in 2016. “Career officials are resistant to the Conservative agenda. Part of Trump’s agenda was to downsize and take control of the career civil service, so obviously they would be against that.