Trump fires US defence secretary Mark Esper

US President Donald Trump on Monday fired defence secretary Mark Esper and announced Christopher C Mills, head of the National Counterterrorism Center, as acting head of the defence department. Esper was Trump’s second defence secretary. The first, James Mattis, had resigned over policy differences with the president about troops in Syria.“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,” president said on twitter.

“Chris will do a GREAT job! Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service.” Esper had only two months, as does Trump who lost the election to Joe Biden, the president-elect. Esper’s firing further destabilises a government already navigating Trump’s refusal to concede election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.Esper had clashed with Trump over his suggestion of using military personnel to quash civic unrest.

The president was frustrated that Esper, who became secretary in July 2019 after serving as Army secretary and as a former executive at Raytheon Technologies Corp., didn’t do more to publicly defend him on key issues, including Trump’s rejection of reports that Russia paid Taliban fighters “bounties” for the killing of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Trump has increasingly sought overt signs of loyalty and a willingness by his top aides to engage in partisan fighting, as demonstrated by Secretary of State Michael Pompeo’s making of a video in support of the president while on an official trip to Jerusalem for the president’s behalf at the Republican National Convention in August.