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On Monday, US President Donald Trump has fired the Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. He announced the termination of Esper in a tweet. President Trump has immediately replaced Esper with the Director of National Counterterrorism Centre, Christopher C Miller. Trump said, “Chris will do a GREAT job! Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service”. The move came after weeks of speculation that Esper was among a number of high-ranking officials facing the ax regardless of whether Trump won or lost the election, including FBI Director Christopher Wray and CIA Director Gina Haspel. Point to be noted that Esper had already prepared a resignation letter in anticipation of leaving the role after long being at odds with Trump on issues like using the military to quell protests over the summer.

NBC News reported that the firing came as Trump continues to contest the results of the presidential election. He is preparing to file lawsuits and take his claims of voter fraud on the road with a campaign-style rally tour across key states where his administration will demand recounts. While cracks in the relationship between the two had been discussed privately for some time, they became public after Esper refused to support the president’s suggestion in June that they could invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act to deploy active-duty troops in response to riots across the country. Esper said at the time, “I say this not only as secretary of Defense but also as a former soldier and a former member of the National Guard”.

Esper added, “The option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire situations. We are not in one of those situations now”. In response, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said only the president had the authority to determine if the Insurrection Act would be invoked. She said, “As of right now, secretary Esper is still secretary Esper, and should the president lose faith, we will all learn about that in the future”. It is important that Esper became defense secretary in July 2019 after acting secretary Pat Shanahan withdrew from consideration. Trump’s first Defense secretary, Jim Mattis resigned in 2018 over the withdrawal of US troops in Syria.