Washington, D.C.
Pentagon purge: President Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper and launched a purge of the Defense Department’s upper ranks, replacing three officials with administration loyalists. Esper, Trump’s third defense secretary, will be succeeded by Christopher Miller, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Appointed in 2019, Esper ran afoul of the White House in June after publicly opposing the use of U.S. troops to quell protests. Trump appointed retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata, a regular Fox News guest, to a top policy post.
Tata has called former President Barack Obama a “Muslim” and a “terrorist.” Two former National Security Council staffers, Kash Patel and Ezra CohenWatnick, who were involved in White House efforts to discredit the FBI’s Russia investigation, were also named to senior spots. Before his exit, Esper defended his record, asking one interviewer, “Have you seen me on a stage saying, ‘Under the exceptional leadership of blah-blah-blah, we have blah-blahblah-blah?’”