Free Republic

President Donald Trump is still president through January 20th and possibly beyond, regardless of what the corrupt news media and Joe Biden think. We elect presidents to serve full four year terms, not 3 years and 10 months. Thus, President Trump continues his work for the American people, and today that work included accepting the resignation of disloyal Defense Secretary Mark Esper, a social justice warrior who should have been canned months ago. With Esper not out and replaced by Christopher C. Miller, the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, speculation now turns to how long the worthless Director of...

Washington (CNN)The Trump administration has carried out sweeping changes atop the Defense Department's civilian leadership structure, removing several of its most senior officials and replacing them with perceived loyalists to the President. The flurry of changes, announced by the Department of Defense in a statement roughly 24 hours after President Donald Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper, have put officials inside the Pentagon on edge and fueled a growing sense of alarm among military and civilian officials, who are concerned about what could come next. Four senior civilian officials have been fired or have resigned since Monday, including Esper,...

Brennan in Complete Panic: Brennan - Pence Must Invoke 25th Amendment To Stop President Trump Part 1 of 2https://twitter.com/BlueSky_Report/status/1326312968410292225 WOW-Brennan In Complete Panic: Brennan calls on VP Pence and the cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment and strip President Trump of his powers. Part 2 of 2 https://twitter.com/BlueSky_Report/status/1326314885563772928    

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.

The Trump administration fired the heads of three federal agencies after the election, prompting one to claim he was retaliated against for disagreeing with some policy. The heads of the agencies that oversee the nuclear weapons stockpile, electricity and natural gas regulation and overseas aid were sent packing, NPR reported. The sudden departures included Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, who was forced to resign Friday. She was the first woman to oversee the agency in charge of the nuclear stockpile. Last year, she was on the president’s short list as a possible replacement for former National...

Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s position is appearing more precarious by the day. Talk is picking up that President Trump could fire members of his Cabinet, including Esper, even as the presidential election goes uncalled. Esper has long been seen as out-the-door regardless of who wins the election, including the possibility that he would resign during the transition period if Trump loses. Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin reported Friday that multiple sources tell him Esper could be fired as early as this week. A GOP source has echoed this expectation to The Hill that Esper may be gone as soon as...

*PENTAGON CHIEF ESPER HAS PREPARED RESIGNATION LETTER: NBC https://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/1324453051021860867   

More than two dozen Democrats are demanding Defense Secretary Mark Esper allow service members to fly LGBT Pride and Native Nation flags, which were banned when Esper issued a broad flag policy that was intended to target the Confederate battle flag. “We ask that you immediately revise the new policy on flag display, explicitly ban the Confederate battle flag, and ensure that service members can express support for diversity and inclusion through the display of sovereign Native Nations and LGBTQ Pride flags,” the Democrats wrote in a letter to Esper released Friday. The letter was organized by Democratic Reps. Anthony...

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) announced Wednesday she will continue to hold 1,123 military promotions until she gets answers on Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s promotion, despite him choosing to retire. Last week, Duckworth announced she would block Senate confirmation of 1,123 senior military officers until Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirmed in writing that he would not block Vindman’s promotion to colonel.

Today I'm creating a new, internal “Defense Board on Diversity & Inclusion in the Military,” which will conduct a 6-month sprint to develop concrete, actionable recommendations to increase racial diversity & ensure equal opportunity across all ranks & in the officer corps.

Some of the most colorful descriptions of the violence facing police officers at Lafayette Square were clumsily spliced out of the middle of Barr's answers to questions. Key details on violent riots near the White House were removed from the broadcast of an interview of Attorney General William Barr on CBS News’ “Face The Nation” Sunday. Anchor Margaret Brennan repeatedly described protests as “peaceful” and the clearing of protesters to set up a stronger perimeter as unnecessarily rushed, contentions Barr strongly denied.Left out of the interview that aired on CBS on Sunday morning was Barr’s detailed accounting of much of...

Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Friday ordered National Guard troops in Washington, DC, to disarm and wear soft caps instead of helmets, an official told Breitbart News on Friday afternoon. The official said the president told Attorney General Bill Barr that he wanted the National Guard to be armed so that they could protect themselves from rioters and looters coming in to the city, but Esper on his own told the D.C. National Guard leadership to take the weapons of National Guardsmen who were coming in from other states.“He’s not really on board with what the president is trying to do,”...

Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley are refusing to testify to the House Armed Services Committee on how the military has responded to police brutality protests around the country, a House aide told the Hill. “Staff was advised that [Department of Defense] leadership has refused to testify next week as requested,” the aide said. “In addition, an informal briefing with the secretary of the Army was cancelled for today.”

Defense Secretary Mark Esper abruptly reversed a decision to order active-duty troops home from the national capital region on Wednesday, capping a roller-coaster eight hours that have raised new questions about whether the beleaguered Pentagon chief will keep his job. Esper irked the White House Wednesday morning when he appeared in front of cameras to proclaim his opposition to deploying active-duty troops to respond to protests around the country — a move that many saw as a break with the president, who on Monday threatened to do just that if state and local officials fail to deal with violent protests...

Washington(CNN)Secretary of Defense Mark Esper is on shaky ground with the White House after saying Wednesday that he does not support using active duty troops to quell the large-scale protests across the United States triggered by the death of George Floyd and those forces should only be used in a law enforcement role as a last resort. Speaking from the Pentagon briefing room podium, Esper noted that "we are not in one of those situations now,"...Wednesday's press briefing by Esper went over poorly at the White House, where his standing was already viewed to be tenuous, multiple people familiar with...

Defense Secretary Mark Esper declared Wednesday that despite President Trump's remarks earlier this week, he is not in favor of the president invoking the Insurrection Act in order to send the U.S. military to quell violent protests. During a morning press briefing, Esper addressed controversies surrounding Trump's stance on violence and looting that has broken out across the country in the aftermath of George Floyd's death, coinciding with other peaceful protests. "The option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire...

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly offered his resignation Tuesday as lawmakers pressured President Donald Trump to take action in the wake of Modly's profanity-laced tirade to the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Modly submitted his resignation letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Tuesday after meeting with his him one-on-one, Politico reported. Neither Esper nor the White House pressured Modly to resign, an official told the website, and it is unclear whether Esper will accept it.

By Karen Lema, Martin Petty and Phil Stewart MANILA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday announced the termination of a two-decade-old Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States (VFA), delivering on threats to downgrade an alliance important to U.S. interests. U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper called the decision "unfortunate" and said it would be a move in the wrong direction at a time when Washington and its allies were trying to press China to abide by "international rules of order" in Asia.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper's plan to draw down U.S. forces in Africa is facing increased pushback on Capitol Hill. The top Democrat and Republican on the House Armed Services Committee have joined numerous lawmakers calling on Esper to stop a planned reduction of the 6,000 to 7,000 troops fighting militant terrorist groups on the continent and instead keep the forces in an effort to better counter Russian and Chinese aggression. “A decrease in our investment now may result in the need for the United States to reinvest at many more times the cost down the road,” Armed Services Committee Chairman...

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper defended President Trump's decision to order the strike that killed General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Quds Force, during a press conference at the Pentagon on Tuesday. Soleimani and Kataib Hezbollah leader Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes were killed by a U.S. airstrike while they were in a car at the Baghdad International Airport. In a statement, the Pentagon said Soleimani was in the country to carry out more attacks against Americans in the region. Iranian-backed militias were under Soleimani's orders to attack the American Embassy in Baghdad on New Year's Eve.Esper said they are not...