United States President Donald Trump announced that the country’s Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, has been fired on Monday. A former Director, National Counterterrorism Center, Christopher Miller, is to replace Esper as the new Secretary of Defense. Trump announced on his Twitter account that Miller will serve in acting capacity with immediate effect.
Trump has decided to fire Esper just two days after Joe Biden appeared to have won the presidential elections under the Democrat platform. However, he is yet to accept the election results.
Sources in the defense department say that Esper may have seen this coming as his relationship with the president increasingly became tense before the elections. In preparation for a situation that the president decides to fire him, Esper had prepared his resignation letter some weeks ahead of time.
There are reports that Mark Meadows, President Trump’s Chief of Staff, had informed Esper of his possible dismissal just before the president announced it on Twitter.
“I serve the country in deference to the Constitution, so I accept your decision to replace me. I step aside knowing there is much we achieved at the Defense Department over the last eighteen months to protect the nation and improve the readiness, capabilities, and professionalism of the joint force, while fundamentally transforming and preparing the military for the future,” Esper responded to the president’s decision through a letter.
The dismissal of the former Defense Secretary has heightened apprehension that more senior officials may also be dismissed, especially if they have not been in the president’s good book. Some past and present officials have said that recently, the U.S. president had been upset with Gina Haspel, Director of CIA, for not releasing documents he believes would reveal conspiracies against him during the Obama administration, mainly concerning his campaign and transition.
Haspel had declined in making the revelations as she felt that revealing such sensitive information could jeopardize the nation’s security. Another official who may not be on good terms with the president is the Director of FBI Christopher Wray, who reportedly failed to reveal information that would have favored Trump and his allies against his political rivals such as Joe Biden. Many fear that Wray may also be fired by the president soon.
Reacting to the news of Esper’s dismissal, Virginia Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner, said he was overly bothered about the development. He added that “The last thing that our country needs is additional upheaval in the institutions designed to protect our national security. There is no doubt that our adversaries are already seeking vulnerabilities they can exploit in order to undermine American global leadership and national security during this transition period.”
Source: npr.org
