Trump fires Mark Esper as defense secretary

WASHINGTON – President Trump on Monday sacked Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, the latest victim in the president’s revolving door of senior national security officials who fell on the wrong side of their boss.

Mr. Trump announced the decision on Twitter, writing in an abrupt message that Mr. Esper had been “fired”.

The president wrote that he was appointing Christopher C. Miller, whom he described as the “highly respected” director of the National Counterterrorism Center, as acting secretary of defense. Mr. Miller will be the fourth official to lead the Pentagon under Mr. Trump.

The president noted that Mr Miller had already been approved by the Senate for his current post, perhaps to argue that the dismissal of a secretary of defense should not be seen as a sign of unrest in the highest the country’s national security ranks. structure.

Mr. Esper’s departure means that Mr. Miller – if he lasts – will see the end of the Trump administration in the Pentagon. Although Mr. Trump has more than two months to take office, it could still be an important moment, as Defense Department officials have privately expressed fears that the president may launch operations, whether they are open. or covert, again Iran or other adversaries in its final office days.

Friends and colleagues praised Mr Miller’s background in the Army Special Forces and counterterrorism credentials, but expressed surprise that he had been raised to such a high position, even at temporary title. And although he is not seen as an ideologue, Mr Miller does not have the stature to push back the extreme positions Mr Trump might defend in his final weeks in office, colleagues said.

“A move like this probably sends a chill through the top ranks of the military,” Nicholas J. Rasmussen, a former senior counterterrorism official in the Bush and Obama administrations, said in an email. “Not because of anything about Chris Miller personally, although it was a very unconventional choice, of course. But quite simply because a move like this contributes to a sense of instability and unstable decision-making at the precise moment you want to avoid sending that kind of message to the world.

Mr. Miller is a former Army Green Beret who helped liberate Kandahar at the start of the war in Afghanistan. He also served as a senior counterterrorism policy official in the National Security Council under Trump’s White House. After that post, he briefly held a leading role in counterterrorism policy at the Pentagon this year.

He has been one of the Trump administration’s musical chairs at national security posts. It wasn’t until August that Miller was appointed to replace Russ Travers, who was the acting head of the counterterrorism center.

Mr. Miller began his military career as an enlisted infantryman in the Army Reserve in 1983. He also served as a military police officer in the District of Columbia National Guard. He was appointed second lieutenant in 1987 and became Army Green Beret in 1993.

In addition to his deployment to Afghanistan, he also served in Iraq in 2003, both with the Fifth Special Forces Group.

By announcing he was firing his Defense Secretary, Mr. Trump sought to recover even a little from the post-election narrative, which was dominated by the victory of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.

But Mr Esper’s downfall had been expected for months, after taking the rare step in June of publicly disagreeing with Mr Trump and saying that active-duty military troops should not be sent to control the wave of protests in American cities. The president, who had threatened to use the insurgency law to do just that, was furious, officials said.

Mr Esper’s spokesperson at the time attempted to undo the damage, telling the New York Times that Mr Trump also did not want to use the insurgency law, otherwise he would have invoked it already. “We don’t see the disconnect,” said Jonathan R. Hoffman, a spokesperson for Mr. Esper.

White House officials disagreed.

Mr Esper, 56, a former Secretary of the Army and former Raytheon executive, became Secretary of Defense last July, after Mr Trump withdrew the appointment of Patrick M. Shanahan, the Secretary of Defense by interim, in the midst of an FBI investigation into Mr. Shanahan’s former wife’s allegations that he punched her in the stomach. Mr. Shanahan has denied the charges.

Mr Shanahan had replaced Jim Mattis, who stepped down as Defense Secretary in 2018, citing his own differences with the president.

Mr Esper had taken the trouble to trim the Trump line during his tenure. But concern over the invocation of the Insurgency Act to send active-duty troops to fight protesters across the country ran deep in the Pentagon. Under heavy public criticism, Mr. Esper finally broke with the president.

Mr. Trump has referred to Mr. Esper like “Mr. Yesper. Ironically, this is the Defense Secretary’s public break with the President at a press conference in June in which he spoke out against the use of US troops on active duty to quell civil unrest. that infuriated Mr. Trump at first. The comments came after Mr. Esper accompanied Mr. Trump on his walk through Lafayette Square outside the White House, where protesters had just been tear gas, which led to the conviction of former military officials and civilians from the Ministry of Defense.

In midsummer, Mr. Esper was walking a fine line to push back other contentious positions involving the military Mr. Trump had taken.

The Pentagon, without once mentioning the word “confederate,” announced in July that it would essentially ban displays of the Confederate flag on military installations across the world.

In a carefully crafted memo which Defense Department officials said was written to avoid igniting another defense of Mr. Trump’s flag, Mr. Esper issued guidelines listing the types of flags that can be displayed on military installations – in barracks, on cars and on signs.

The guidelines did not specifically say that Confederate flags were prohibited, but they did indicate that they did not fall into any of the approved categories – and such flags were prohibited.

After the events of June, Mr Esper sought to slip under the radar, avoiding the news media and keeping a low profile to avoid being drawn into electoral politics.

He traveled often in early summer, including overseas trips to North Africa, the Middle East and India.

But the secretary deliberately limited his public comments down the road.

When he spoke in public, abroad, or in Washington, it was often in pre-recorded remarks on safe topics (criticizing China and Russia on the trip to Africa) or in friendly places (a question and answer session – responses on military readiness to The Heritage Foundation, where Mr. Esper had served as Chief of Staff).

Yet on the biggest problem of 2020 – the coronavirus pandemic – history can show that Mr Esper has by far surpassed his boss, who largely refused to wear a mask and contracted the coronavirus during a epidemic in the White House. Mr Esper, on the other hand, strictly adhered to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines regarding wearing a mask when unable to maintain recommended social distancing.

In a virtual Pentagon town hall-style meeting, Mr. Esper responded to a sailor from the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford who complained that the social distancing required on the ship was damaging morale.

“It’s tedious – I understand that,” Mr. Esper said. “But I think it shows, in terms of how the Navy is doing in terms of infection rate, that they are doing a really good job.