Trump ‘Terminated’ Esper; Former White House Counterterror Official Takes Over

WASHINGTON: President Trump has fired his latest Defense Secretary just days after the presidential election was called for Democratic rival Joe Biden, installing a little-known former White House and Pentagon official to take his place.

Christopher Miller, who has been “performing the duties” of the assistant secretary of Defense for special operations for several months, is now in the top spot, a move that leaves Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist in the cold. The deputy is normally next in line when the secretary is fired. It is also an extraordinary promotion for Miller. Many officials are senior to him and have more time in their jobs across the Pentagon.

In classic form, the president made the surprise announcement via Twitter this afternoon, saying bluntly “Mark Esper has been terminated.”

Trump’s action drew immediate criticism from a senior Republican defense expert, Kori Schake.

“It’s shockingly irresponsible for the President to disrupt the important work of defending our nation during a presidential transition this way,” Schake, director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute says. “Secretary Esper was serving our country ably and well as Defense Secretary.”

Rep. Adam Smith, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said firing Esper “out of spite is not just childish, it’s also reckless. It has long been clear that President Trump cares about loyalty above all else, often at the expense of competence, and during a period of presidential transition competence in government is of the utmost importance.”

Esper has kept a low profile since the summer, when he broke with Trump during protests that were sweeping across the country. Esper publicly said he didn’t support invoking the Insurrection Act which would allow active duty troops to be used to help quell the wave of protests across the country. The president had threatened to use the power to do just that. The break between the two was the most serious of Esper’s tenure, and by all accounts he never fully recovered.

That tension was compounded by the Pentagon’s clear frustration over Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley being photographed with Trump crossing Lafayette Square just after it was violently cleared of protestors by law enforcement. 

The secretary has spent much of his time since then on the road, visiting allies and US troops at home and abroad, declining to speak on the record with the press. He also stopped what had become semi-regular press conferences at the Pentagon. Esper had made much of his efforts to reinstate those briefings, which have been a regular feature of the US military’s relations with the outside world for decades.

Miller has been at the Pentagon only since January, where he was sworn in as deputy assistant secretary for Special Operations and Combating Terrorism before later sliding over to the SO/LIC job earlier this year to take over after Owen West departed.