Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he wasn't Trump's yes-man just days before he was 'terminated' by the president

• Just a few days before he was fired, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper pushed back on claims that he is the president's yes-man in the Pentagon, telling Military Times he challenges the president more than any other Cabinet-level leader.
• He said that he doesn't lavish the president with praise, and he acknowledged that there have been "occasional tensions with the White House."
• President Donald Trump fired Esper Monday. He did not give a reason, but the president has previously purged officials for failing to meet his expectations of loyalty.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told a reporter that he was not President Donald Trump's yes-man in the Pentagon just a few days before he was abruptly fired.

Though some critics have nicknamed the secretary "Yesper," he argued in an interview with Military Times last week that he has pushed back more than the other Cabinet-level leaders.

"My frustration is I sit here and say, 'Hm, 18 cabinet members. Who's pushed back more than anybody?' Name another cabinet secretary that's pushed back," he said.

"Have you seen me on a stage saying, 'Under the exceptional leadership of blah-blah-blah, we have blah-blah-blah-blah?'" he added, referencing familiar scenes of senior administration officials, which sometimes included Esper, praising Trump in their speeches.

Though Esper has been, in many cases, aligned with the president, he acknowledged that there have been "occasional tensions with the White House" during his tenure as secretary of defense. One issue has been Esper's fight for an apolitical military while Trump has at times sought to use the armed forces as a prop.

Tensions flared in June when Esper publicly broke with Trump over whether or not it was appropriate to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy active-duty military personnel to American cities amid nationwide unrest. He also tried to distance himself from a politically-charged photo op at a church following the forceful clearing of protesters from a park near the White House.

Trump and other White House officials were outraged. The president wanted to fire him, but he was ultimately talked out of doing so, though discussions of firing Esper continued.

In July, Esper sent out a memo that effectively banned the Confederate flag on US military bases. It was done subtly, in a way that did not directly mention the flag, but the effect was the same. And, then more recently, NBC reported that Esper was working with Congress to draft legislation that would change the names of military bases that honor Confederate leaders.

In his interview with Military Times, Esper commented on the flag issue, saying, "We don't want a flag that was aligned with an organization that, you know, committed treason against the country."

Trump has been a staunch opponent of efforts to ban the Confederate flag, remove statues of Confederate leaders, and rename military bases. He has repeatedly championed these symbols as important parts of American history and heritage, dismissing arguments that they are symbols of racism, hatred, and intolerance.

In a tweet in which Trump said he would not even consider renaming bases, he wrote: "Our history as the Greatest Nation in the World will not be tampered with. Respect our military!"

That tweet came just days after reports came out stating that Esper was open to renaming military bases named after Confederate leaders, bases such as Fort Bragg and Fort Pickett.

There were other cracks in the relationship, and it is still unclear exactly what may have been the final nail in the coffin for the ousted secretary of defense.

Trump fired Esper Monday, writing in a tweet that he had been "terminated," but he did not give a specific reason why. Trump has previously purged senior officials for failing to meet his expectations of loyalty.

CNN reported that despite expectations that Esper might be fired before Trump left office, the move sent "a shockwave through the Pentagon."

Esper told Military Times that when it came to working with Trump, all he could do was try to "make the best out of it."

"I can only control what I do," he said. "I'm not trying to make anybody happy. What I'm trying to do is, fulfill what he wants — I mean, he's the duly elected commander-in-chief — and make the best out of it."

Despite the challenges of the job, Esper said it would take "something really, really big" for him to quit.

"My soldiers don't get to quit," the secretary said. "So if I'm going to quit, it better be over something really, really big. And otherwise, look, I'm going to do what I've always done, which is try and shape it the best I can."

Esper graduated from West Point in 1986 and became an infantry officer. He served with the 101st Airborne Division, and he earned a Bronze Star Medal during the Gulf War. He also worked for the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank and was a top lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon.

In 2017, he was chosen to serve in the Pentagon as the secretary of the Army, and in the uncertain aftermath following the abrupt resignation of Trump's first secretary of defense, James Mattis, he was eventually selected to be the defense secretary in mid-2019.

He stressed that picking your battles was key in dealing with this administration.

"I could have a fight over anything, and I could make it a big fight," he said, telling Military Times that "you've got to pick your fights."

He said that were he to leave, the situation could be a lot worse. "Who's going to come in behind me? It's going to be a real 'yes man.' And then God help us."