Defense Secretary Mark Esper Fired
President Donald Trump announced Monday afternoon that he had fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.
“Mark Esper has been terminated,” Trump tweeted. “I would like to thank him for his service.”
“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 wrote.
The Pentagon has not commented as of this writing.
After reports Friday suggested that Esper, along with FBI Director Chris Wray and CIA Director Gina Haspel, were on Trump’s chopping block, the Department of Defense categorically denied the rumors, saying that, “Esper has no plans to resign, nor has he been asked to submit a letter of resignation.”
That statement is at odds with three unnamed defense officials who say Esper had submitted an undated resignation to the administration, as is common practice.
Two decisions seem to have put Esper at odds with the administration: in June, Esper said he did not support the invoking the Insurrection Act and deploying active-duty U.S. troops to cities in a response to civil unrest.
“I say this not only as secretary of Defense, but also as a former soldier and a former member of the National Guard, 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 situations. We are not in one of those situations now,” Esper said.
Hours later, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump has the “sole authority” to deploy the troops.
Responding to reports that Esper was on his way out, McEnany said, “I would say if he loses confidence in Secretary Esper I’m sure you all will be the first to know. As of right now, Secretary Esper is still Secretary Esper, and should the president lose faith, we will all learn about that in the future.”
More recently, Esper has been working with members of Congress to draft legislation that removes the names of Confederate leaders from military bases. Trump does not support changing the names.
Esper did not have a lot of foreign policy experience. Before leading the Pentagon, he worked as an executive at Raytheon. He left the in 2017 to serve as the 23rd secretary of the U.S. Army.
A defense department source confirmed that Esper had tendered his resignation and wanted to leave the Pentagon because “he cares about his legacy and prefers to be remembered as someone who was fired because he stood up to the president, rather than being remembered as ‘Yesper.'”
Comments