Donald Trump fires Mark Esper, appoints Christopher Miller as Acting Defence Secretary

Following a highly divisive US Presidential Election, President Donald Trump terminated Defence Secretary Mark Esper on Monday, November 9. Trump announced that Christopher Miller, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center would replace Esper. With over 70 days left in office after his November 3 election defeat, Trump's move appears to be an attempt to settle accounts with his administration.

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'Mark Esper has been terminated'

Taking to Twitter, Trump Miller's appointment as the Acting Defence Secretary "effective immediately" and thanked Esper for his service in another tweet.

 

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Mark Esper served in the Trump administration as the second Defence secretary after James Mattis resigned over policy differences with the president. He had been out of favour with Trump for opposing the proposals to use active-duty troops to suppress protests over racial injustice in the United States during the summer.

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US Elections 2020

Democratic candidate Joe Biden was declared the winner of the US Presidential elections 2020 as per projections of numerous media networks almost four days after polling closed, with mail-in ballots still being counted in some states. He will be the 46th President of the United States after the inauguration on January 20. It was Biden's home state Pennsylvania that finally delivered the victory to him, pushing him over the significant 270-electoral college votes mark.

While he will formally assume the Presidency in January 2021, there is still the matter of Trump refusing to cleanly concede the election. Trump was last heard claiming that it was he who won the election and that mail-in ballots had defrauded the American people. The Trump campaign has also challenged counting in several states by filing a series of lawsuits. Incumbent Donald Trump has accused the poll officials of "cheating" and "fraud" as they continued counting ballots that arrived after 8 pm on the final voting day. 

Regardless, scores of world leaders have congratulated Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the American people have taken to the streets to celebrate - probably not the best idea given that the US is the country worst-hit by the Coronavirus crisis with record numbers of new cases now being reported on a daily basis. Biden has stated he would take decisive action on the pandemic as soon as he becomes President.

Meanwhile, the newly elected Vice President Kamala Harris also made history on Saturday, November 7 after she became the first woman, first Indian-American, first Black to be elected the vice-president of the United States. 

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(With ANI inputs) (Image- AP)