Defense Secretary Mark Esper has been “terminated,” President Trump wrote in a tweet, and will be replaced by Christopher C. Miller, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center.
“Chris will do a GREAT job,” Trump tweeted shortly after noon. “Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service.”
Sources say Esper already had a resignation letter ready to go — because Trump threatened to fire him in June over a disagreement about using active duty troops to quell street protests — and had recently updated it.
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