Who is Chris Miller? Trump 'terminates' Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, source says 'FBI and CIA are next'
Sitting president Donald Trump made a shocking move on Monday, November 9, by announcing on Twitter that he has “terminated” Defense Secretary Mark Esper. He mentioned that Esper would be replaced by Christopher C Miller, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center. This announcement came just five months after Esper and the POTUS were in disagreement with each other on how to tackle civil unrest in America in the wake of racial justice demonstrations.
Trump tweeted, “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.” He continued, “Chris will do a GREAT job! Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service.”
...Chris will do a GREAT job! Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2020
Ties soured between Trump and Esper in June this year. At that time Esper told reporters that he did not support the invoking of the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law, to allow Trump to deploy US troops to respond to civil unrest triggered by protests against police brutality.
“I say this not only as the Secretary of Defense but also as a former soldier and a former member of the National Guard, 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 situations. We are not in one of those situations now,” Esper said at that time irking Trump.
According to reports, it is very unlikely that the Senate will confirm Miller or a new nominee for the role before Trump leaves the White House in January as his Democratic rival Joe Biden is now the president-elect who is soon to take office. After Esper’s firing, Trump might attack other dignitaries with whom he had always been in a tussle in the past.
A source in the Trump administration told CNBC, “I assume FBI and CIA are next,” referring to FBI Director Christopher Wray and CIA Director Gina Haspel.
Trump's frustration with Wray mounted as he (Wray) did not launch an investigation into Biden's campaign that could purportedly boost poll numbers for Trump. Trump and his allies have been infuriated over Gina Haspel whom they accuse of delaying the release of documents they believe would expose so-called "deep state" plots against Trump's campaign.
Now as he has mentioned appointing Miller as acting Secretary of Defense, here we shed some light on him.
Who is Chris Miller?
Christopher C Miller was raised in Iowa City and is a retired US Army officer. He got his bachelor's degree in history from George Washington University in 1987 and his Master's degree in national security studies from the Naval War College. He embarked on a military career in the Army Reserve in 1983. Miller served in the military from 1983 to 2014. During this period he participated in numerous combat operations in Afghanistan in 2001 and the second Iraq war in 2003.
After he retired from the military, Miller worked as a defense contractor. Between 2018-19 he was named as special assistant to the POTUS and senior director of counterterrorism and transnational threats at the National Security Council.
Bloomberg reported that in this role Miller’s portfolio mainly focused on what “Trump sees as among his biggest foreign policy victories: hostage recovery and the campaign against Islamic State terrorists. Miller was overseeing the office when the US launched a successful operation to kill Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.”
Miller had said as director of the US National Counterterrorism Center that ISIS was expanding its footprint globally and was aiming at Western targets. The extremist group "has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to rebound from severe losses over the past six years by relying on a dedicated cadre of veteran mid-level commanders, extensive clandestine networks, and downturns in CT (counter-terrorism) pressure to persevere.”
He stated that inside Syria and Iraq, IS has undertaken "a steady rate" of assassinations and mortar and bomb attacks. More recently, on August 10 this year, Miller became director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Now he has been named as acting Secretary of Defense by Trump following his firing of Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.