Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s remarks on Wednesday morning — which broke with President Trump’s demand to invoke the Insurrection Act amid mounting protests nationwide in the wake of George Floyd’s death — reportedly did not sit well with the White House.
Maybe this is his opportunity to exit this “Administration” with some kind of dignity.
Good luck with that.
All military personnel that Trump brought to DC are headed back to their barracks. DoD and the Joint Chiefs are officially out on Trump’s political gambit. Barr and Trump are on an island. That’s sort of a passive aggressive coup in that the military is openly and firmly declining to assist POTUS with the misuse of federal troops for political purposes. The other significant thing is that Esper has closed off a loophole that conservative justices have used to give a permission slip to Trump to do whatever he wants. Most of the time (e.g., Travel Ban case) there is presumed deference to the executive to determine the ‘reasonableness’ of an order. There is an assumption that the POTUS is doing everything based on an objective assessment of national interest. Esper said that there is no national emergency here requiring US troops. That puts Trump/Barr on weak legal grounds even with the Kavanaughs and Raos of the world.
That would make him the first (snark intended)
Quit, Mark, quit.
He’d be fired faster if he disagreed with trump on the “Original Recipe vs. Extra Crispy” debate.
I know it’s not much, but in the context of the shocking lack of bravery evidenced by every Republican senator, except Romney and even then…meh, this is a start.
You never know who is going to choke at sycophancy.
Esper is suddenly realizing that with the “battlespace” comments, added to the stupid photo-op and the firing of the carrier skipper, he might have damaged his career way beyond repair. He will become a PR liability, no Defense Contractor Directors Board will agree to hire him, not even Erik Prince will give him a job.
Drip, drip, drip…
What career? Working for Trump is never a career move. Only stupid, deluded people will do it.
This is the first time that the military has received an order from Trump and declined to follow it. They have, imho, made their own assessment that Trump has no legal basis to issue this order because there is no reasonable grounds to indicate a national emergency of any type. Breaking into Hermes or Nike stores do not constitute national emergencies.
Until trump gets a toadie that will agree to a national emergency. Plenty of those out there.
Baby steps but DOTUS may be on the run, er, lurch.
And another one’s gone and another one’s gone, and another one bites the dust.
O surprise surprise surprise!
So, Esper’s job is safe.
Would have been concerned if the WH said that the president has full confidence in him.
Trump Twitter announces Esper’s “resignation” in three… two… one…
Where are you seeing this?
That whole, going to the bathroom excuse is grounds for dismissal on it’s own demerit. It’s as if he knew he knew his job to be defending his asshole superior, and the best he could come up with is lamer than the dog who ate his homework. The Secretary of Defense does not have the option of feeding homework to the dog.
