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D.fired outgoing US President Donald Trump shortly after the lost election, Defense Secretary Mark Esper. The office will be taken over by Christopher Miller, as Trump wrote on Twitter Monday. Miller was previously director of the National Counter Terrorism Center. Rumors of Esper’s firing had been around for months. However, such a step was expected in the aftermath of the elections, especially in the event of Trump’s victory.
Since the summer there has been tension between the president and the defense minister. In the background were protests against racism and police violence, in which Trump appeared as hardliner and threatened to end the unrest in the country with military force if necessary. To do this, he would have had to activate the “Insurrection Act” of 1807, which allows the president to use the military nationwide in certain circumstances.
National military?
Esper had spoken out against the use of the military and was clearly distancing himself from Trump. He described this as a “last resort” which should only be used in the “most urgent and worst situations”. The fact that the defense minister is so publicly distant from the country’s commander in chief is highly unusual and apparently has not been well received by Trump. American media reported at the time, citing Trump’s milieu that had already raised the issue of Espers’ replacement.
Additionally, there were disagreements over how to deal with the Confederate flag, among other things, which had been brought into focus in the racism debate in the United States. Esper had ordered that the flag be banned from military installations. However, he had avoided an open confrontation with Trump by forgoing an explicit ban on the flag.
NBC previously reported Thursday that Esper had prepared for his resignation because it had long been predicted that he would be fired after the election. Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman rejected the report, saying the minister had no intention of resigning nor had he been asked to resign.
Rumors of a possible sacking of Espers and other government officials in the wake of the elections continued to the last. The Axios news platform reported in late October that, in the event of an election victory, Trump would also sack the FBI Federal Police Chief, Christopher Wray, and CIA Director Gina Haspel, as well as Esper.
Trump’s tenure was marked by layoffs and resignations within the government. Esper succeeded James Mattis at the helm of the Pentagon, who resigned in December 2018 due to a disagreement with Trump.
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