US President Donald Trump plans to replace the Pentagon’s chief

By Boyko Nikolov On Sep 8, 2020

WASHINGTON, (BM) – US President Donald Trump is dissatisfied with the country’s current defense secretary, Mark Esper, and is considering a new candidate for the post of head of the Pentagon. It is reported with reference to high-ranking sources in the presidential administration of NBS News, learned BulgarianMilitary.com.

Trump, according to the channel, met with his advisers and discussed with them the possible dismissal of Esper. Trump nominated Secretary of State for Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie, who was approved for the post in the summer of 2018. Two senior administration officials said the president discussed it directly with Wilkie at the White House last month.

It is noted that several more candidates for the post of head of the defense department are being considered. According to the channel’s interlocutors, the head of state does not plan to fire Mark Esper before the presidential elections to be held in November.

Relations between Trump and the Secretary of War escalated further, according to the channel, last week when Esper announced a cut in funding for the American military’s Stars and Stripes newspaper, published since the Civil War. The American leader defiantly rejected this decision.

On August 12, Bloomberg reported that Donald Trump could fire Esper if he wins the presidential election. At the same time, one of the sources of the publication said that Esper told people close to him about his desire to leave office, regardless of the results of the election of the head of state.

This opportunity has been circulating in the media in recent months

This is not the first time when we report about the possibility the Pentagon’s chief to be replaced. “President Trump said privately that he intends to replace the head of the Pentagon, Mark Esper, after the November elections,” sources told Bloomberg on August 13.

Then, the agency noted that Trump is “disappointed” that Esper did not adequately protect him in situations such as reports of alleged Russian rewards to members of the Taliban for the murder of US troops in Afghanistan.

How was Mark Esper chosen?

“As you have probably heard, the Senate vote just took place and showed 90 up to 8 against. This is a vote we are not used to,” President Donald Trump said back in July 2019 at the beginning of the ceremony.

The head of the country expressed the opinion that Esper would become an excellent defense minister.

“I am confident that he will be an outstanding secretary of defense. I have absolutely no doubt about that, he is outstanding in every way,” Trump said then.

Esper took the oath. After the ceremony, he thanked the president for his trust and the Senate for “strong, bipartisan support.”

“It is a lifelong honor to be appointed Secretary of Defense and lead the greatest army in history. And I will do so with the same energy and commitment to honor, duty and country that I have for nearly four decades,” Esper added.

Note that since the moment James Mattis left office in December 2018, no one was approved by the US Secretary of Defense. This is the longest such period in the history of the Pentagon.

Until June 2019, the acting head of the department was Patrick Shanahan, who as a result, on his own initiative, refused to further confirm his candidacy in the Senate.

Mark Esper is a veteran of the 1990-1991 war with Iraq. He retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Esper has worked at the Heritage Research Center, the Senate and commercial structures. In November 2017, Esper became Secretary of the United States Army.

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