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US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump fired Defence Secretary Mark Esper yesterday, further unsettling a government facing uncertainty over the US president’s refusal to concede election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.
Coming with just 10 weeks left in his White House tenure, the move heightened concerns that Trump might take aim at other national security officials with whom he has expressed disappointment.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner, Vice-Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he “deeply troubled” by Trump’s firing of Esper “just 72 days before a new president will be inaugurated and during a growing global pandemic”.
In a statement, Warner said: “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.”
He added that the transfer of power from Trump to Biden “should be peaceful”.
“The last thing that our country needs is additional upheaval in the institutions designed to protect our national security. President Trump must not invite further volatility by removing any Senate-confirmed intelligence or national security officials during his time left in office.”
Retired General Barry McCaffrey told MSNBC firing Esper is an “unusal move” by Trump and one that people should be worried about.
“This signals that Mr Trump does not see himself as Commander in Chief for only a few more months. It makes no logical sense whatsoever to fire somebody who is highly qualified with literally weeks until you turn over this office,” McCaffrey said.
“We ought to be apprehensive about what’s going on,” he added.
Trump named Christopher Miller, head of the National Counterterrorism Center, as acting defence secretary.
Miller is a retired 31-year army veteran who deployed in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 with the special forces. He was Trump’s White House advisor on counterterrorism, and served as deputy assistant secretary of defence for special operations from January to August 2020.
FBI and CIA
According to multiple reports, Trump is also believed to be considering dismissing FBI Director Chris Wray and CIA Director Gina Haspel, angered that they did not support his battle for reelection.
Retired admiral James Stavridis, the former Nato supreme allied commander, said that Trump is “playing with fire with our nation’s security”.
“If Trump moves on to fire the head of the CIA and the head of the FBI, both true professionals and patriots, we are going to be in uncharted waters for the next 90 days,” Stavridis wrote on Twitter.
The Washington Post reported that Trump had already removed the official in charge of the programme that produces the government’s climate change reports, a move that would allow him to be replaced by someone with views closer to Trump’s scepticism about global warming.
Below the radar
Esper was Trump’s fourth defence chief in four years, and his removal capped a stormy relationship between the Pentagon and the president.
Like his predecessors, Esper, 56, sought to fly below the political radar to avoid Trump’s ire.
But they ultimately collided over White House pressure to deploy federal troops to quash civil unrest, and Trump’s desire for a rapid withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan before the defence establishment felt it was safe.
“Mark Esper has been terminated,” Trump declared abruptly on Twitter yesterday.
“I would like to thank him for his service.”
Funding the border wall
Esper, who was a classmate of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at military academy West Point, worked for years in the defence industry before joining the Pentagon as army secretary in 2017.
He became defence secretary in July 2019, and pursued fundamental reforms to the massive Pentagon bureaucracy and sought to reshape the US global defence posture to focus on China.
Esper accommodated some of Trump’s wishes, launching a separate Space Command and, when Congress would not fund it, moving billions of dollars from weapons and base maintenance programmes for construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border to block illegal immigrants.
He also sharply cut US forces in Syria as Trump sought to live up to his 2016 election pledge to bring back troops from overseas.
‘Preserving my integrity’
But even as he skirted controversy, Esper could not avoid colliding with the commander in chief.
After sometimes violent anti-racism protests spread across the country following the May police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Trump sought support from the Pentagon for deploying regular troops.
Both Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley made clear they disagreed with the idea, reportedly infuriating Trump, who later publicly demeaned the Pentagon chief as “Yesper”.
More tension came in June when Trump announced, reportedly without informing Esper, that he would halve the number of US troops in Germany.
And then, Trump pressed for a faster drawdown of US forces from Afghanistan than originally planned after the 29 February US-Taliban peace deal.
Esper quietly but stiffly pushed back, insisting that the level will stay at 4,500 troops after this month, until the Taliban follow through on pledged reductions in violence.
In an interview last week with Military Times that was held in anticipation of his removal, Esper said he had defended the Pentagon as an institution while “preserving my integrity in the process”.
“Name another cabinet secretary that’s pushed back,” he said.
- © AFP 2020, with reporting by Órla Ryan
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Major tantrum time now, suit him better to leave now with a bit of dignity.
@Al Fresco: not very likely to happen with this man baby.
@Dave Thomas: He is making a bigger name for himself -they are saying Fox news is going against him now also (slowly).. Folks reporting he will open up a news channel of his own as they believe they have millions of Trump supporters who will switch to his channel — money in the bag
@Al Fresco: Dignity? Trump? Hahaha. Ah stop
@Al Fresco: More than a tantrum. This is sinister and deadly serious. I’d be afraid Americas enemies will exploit this and throw country – and the world – into chaos.
@Dan: He doesnt need Fox anymore. He Lost, he knows he lost, the world knows it. Its not about reelection anymore. Its about as much wreckage he can cause now for who takes over.
Remember Hitler from his bunker, blamed the German people and insisted they should go down with him. What should concern most people now is the Republican Party silence and reluctance to acknowledge whats going to happen to them. Unless they realise its going to take them many years to resurface after all this!
@Dan: that Trump news Chanel would be a pro Putin channel or Kim Jong channel full of lies and rhetoric. Trumps knuckle dragging brigade will love it
@Dave Thomas: he’ll burn the place down before he goes…
@Dave Thomas: correction …this evil yoke … please do not dignify this monster .
Scary to think of the damage he can do over the next couple of months.
@EillieEs: I expect he will resign and pence will become 46th and then pardon him just like ford did for Nixon. Proclamation 4311.
@Twitruser2020: He has to be charged & convicted first, which will not happen in the timeframe you are referencing
@Bountyop: No he doesn’t. That’s a common misconception.
@EillieEs: it is a very flawed handover system . Very dangerous when you don’t have a human being in the White House !
This is exactly what his nice said he would do.
Mary Trump: ‘If he thinks he’s going down, he’s going to try to take the rest of us down with him.’
Leader of the free world throwning his toys out of the pram
@kennyjones27: Free world, Haha good one, America is a complete dump. Dont believe the movies
@kennyjones27: He’s not my leader.
He’s gone from rage tweeting to rage firing… The White House will soon be a very lonely place for him.
This is a Coup.
He is getting rid of all the people that can prevent him from staying in the White House.
This isn’t a tantrum. This is a plan
@Tricia G: You are right there. but because it was all so predictable before the election, perhaps others were preparing a plan to deal with it/him.
If not, we could be looking at scenes in the coming weeks of a sale of the white-house furniture on the lawn outside, where Vlad and other world dictators arrive to purchase the goods at bargain prices.
Sure what else would he be doing while he waits for all the votes to be counted correctly?
I’m sure his legal team are ready to throw the Logan Act at Biden if he keeps pretending he is the President Elect and negotiating with foreign governments.
I’d say they are good to go also, if Biden does eventually win the election “legally”, with the process of Impeachment over his dealings with Ukraine.
@Tricia G: well the democrats funded a coup against a democratically elected government in Honduras so they’re not morally opposed to coups
@Tricia G: “This is a Coup.”
No, it is not a coup.
No need for sensationalism.
This is Trump throwing a childish tantrum on his way out the door.
As long as the election is certified for Biden, Trumps days in the White House end in January.
@Angela McCarthy: “a sale of the white-house furniture on the lawn outside”
Americans do love a good garage sale.
I’ll give ya €5 for that hair piece with the orange highlights!
@Eddie: The Logan Act…? You mean this: “The Logan Act is a 1799 law that calls for the fine or imprisonment of private citizens who attempt to intervene without authorization in disputes or controversies between the United States and foreign governments.” – The Atlantic
Which foreign government is Biden involved with? Are you confusing Joe with Donnie’s old friend Micheal Flynn?
Really, the whole world can’t be placed on pause because Trump’s acting like a pre-schooler who doesn’t understand with basic mathematics.
@Bee Bonthuys: Logan Act… yep… glad you learned something today.
Not confusing anyone… just remaining focussed on Biden.
Anyways, more concerned as to why the whole world is placed on pause because or a virus that you have to be tested to find out if you have it!
Is Leo gone yet?
President trump going to create mayhem before jan 20th can’t go with dignity as he was preaching in 2016
Getting rid of those who can prosecute and replacing with his allies.
This guy needs to go fast.
Realistically he’s very much going out of his way to make the presidential transition as rough as possible for Biden so he can get a few more months of rallys and donations spent talking about the chaos that the Biden presidency is causing.
The other, more dangerous reason (while unlikely to actually bare fruit for him) is to stuff key positions with enough folks 100% loyal to Trump in order to have them use their influence to cause enough chaos in the Presidential roadmap that prevents the usual formal election and confirmation that it causes a constitutional crisis which he hopes will keep him around.
How can one man hold so much power, it’s a dictatorship not a democracy
@Denise Kelly: Because it’s dependent on “norms”. As in doing what everyone always done.
Until you get someone like Trump who doesn’t adhere to those norms and exposes just how fragile these institutions can be.
@Denise Kelly: he doesn’t hold this power you are talking about though. He is entitled to due process with the fraud allegations. Courts, not media, will decide. Media doesn’t get to declare the the president either. MSM have overstepped Their remit big time in both areas. That’s the most concerning thing in all of this. Anyway I predict next episodes in the soap opera: courts find for trump and cue resumption and acceleration of City burning By left/Antifa/BLM. Get the popcorn out it’s all ya can do
@Juiceythejuice: While the courts will (rightly) always have the final say, media have always called US elections. AP (The Associated Press) has called every US Presidential Election since 1848. Before you talk about overstepping remits, read some history/context first.
hope he doesn’t press the button,someone lock him up
Scorched earth policy from now to 20 Jan.
Time for 25th Amendment
I think the UK need to break out the giant baby Trump balloon again, it’s never been more apt
Meanwhile he has failed to grasp that he’s the one who has been fired by the electorate
@DJ François: should the fired be allowed to fire?
Lock him up now Joe
Rattles being thrown out of the pram!!
Orange man mad.
@David F. Dwyer: The Incredible Sulk
No position irrespective of prominence should be without sanction if such a action is deemed appropriate. The China shop in this instance should not be allowed to be demolished on the whim of one individual.
The bull in this case needs to be neutered asap.
Someone called his supporters “knuckledraggers”… I’d be more concerned with finding out exactly why they support him instead of resorting to name calling. We can’t bring them away from Trumpism unless we know why they supported him in the first place. Knowledge is power, ignorance – in this case – is certainly not bliss…
@Garry Nolan: some places voted overwhelmingly for Obama and then overwhelmingly for Trump the first time he ran. Working class people who feel let down by what they see as the establishment mostly. It’s a shame there’s no real worker’s movement there and both parties just represent the rich and corporations.
@SC: “both parties just represent the rich and corporations.”
Which is why the issue of campaign finance is so important over there. The common man will always lose out under the present system.
@Will: the duopoly is owned by the oligarchy. All this is just a puppet show.
Shame on him and shame on his enablers including those republicans who are still backing him
He wants to target Iran before he leaves office I suspect.
You couldn’t make this up
@Type17: you’re right there’s precedent for premature announcement of president by media. Don’t see how that justifies it now though?. Re: current fraud allegations And the “ trial by media” Already declaring no evidence.. it’s an affront to civilisation and makes a Mockery of due process. No matter who you support
have your say