WASHINGTON — Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who's been on the job just since August of 2019, has been fired by President Donald J. Trump.
Trump announced the move in a midday tweet Monday, just two days after the presidential election was called by the Associated Press and major television networks in favor of former Vice President Joe Biden.
Esper, a West Point graduate and former Army lieutenant colonel, was vice president of government relations for Raytheon — the fifth-largest defense contractor in the United States — for seven years before becoming Army secretary.
He ran into trouble with Trump earlier this year when he disagreed about how the military was used during a peaceful protest in Washington, and then later when he said he supported renaming Army bases currently named after Confederate figures from the Civil War.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) said getting rid of Esper sends a bad message to the world.
"You do this in the last weeks of a lame-duck presidency, you send a message about American instability," he said. "This, the Department of Defense is the critical agency in the government that's about keeping Americans safe. And why would you want to send an instability message in the national security team? It's beyond belief for a normal president. It's sadly unsurprising for Donald Trump."
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) said Esper "deserves our thanks for his service. And our country deserves better than this."
House Armed Services Committee and House Veterans Affairs Committee member Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va., 2nd District) said in a statement: “The President’s firing of Secretary Esper during the last two months of his administration is unwarranted. At this time of transition to the Biden administration, our adversaries will look for weaknesses to exploit and this petty decision by the President does not make our nation more safe.”
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Washington) called the firing "a destabilizing move that will only embolden our adversaries and put our country at greater risk."
13News Now also reached out to the sole Republican in the Hampton Roads congressional delegation, Rep. Rob Wittman. We are still awaiting a response.
Trump tweeted that Esper would be replaced, in an acting capacity, effective immediately, by National Counter Intelligence Center Director Christopher Miller.
"He will do a GREAT job," Trump wrote in all caps.