On Monday, Donald Trump fired Mark Esper, Defense secretary who had been in position since 2019.
Esper had been at odds with Trump on a number of issues, most importantly his insistence at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer that there were no legal grounds to deploy active-service troops on the streets of US cities.
According to reports, Trump is likey to fire some top officials of his administration either later today or tomorrow.
In a series of tweets on his Twitter handle, Trump announced that Christopher Miller, the highly respected Director of the National Counterterrorism Center will be Acting Secretary of Defence with immediate effect.
According to Trump: “I am pleased to announce that Christopher C. Miller, the highly respected Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (unanimously confirmed by the Senate), will be Acting Secretary of Defense effective immediately.
“Chris will do a GREAT job! Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service.