Trump Fires Defence Secretary

Trump Fires Defence Secretary

US President Donald Trump announced on Twitter Monday that he has fired Secretary of Defence Mark Esper, and that Christopher Miller, who serves as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, will become acting secretary “effective immediately.”

Esper’s increasingly tense relationship with Trump led him to prepare a letter of resignation weeks ago, an attempt to fashion a graceful exit in the widely expected event that the President decided to fire him, several defense sources, including one senior defence official, told CNN.

Tensions between Esper and Trump also played out publicly and had been simmering long enough that the defence secretary had prepared a letter of resignation weeks ago, aware that the President could fire him by tweet at any time.

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