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Trump's personnel head wanted to fire the defense secretary because he opposed Confederate flags on bases, vowed to be apolitical, ruled out attacking Iranian cultural sites, sought the perspectives of transgender soldiers, and 13 other reasons

Nov 11, 2021, 06:02 IST
Business Insider
Then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper speaks as then-President Donald Trump listens during a daily White House coronavirus press briefing on April 1, 2020. Win McNamee/Getty Images
  • John McEntee, Trump's personnel head, wrote a memo with 17 reasons Mark Esper should be fired.
  • They included Esper's pledge to be apolitical and his opposition to Confederate flags on bases.
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The head of President Donald Trump's Presidential Personnel Office wrote a memo in October 2020 outlining 17 reasons Defense Secretary Mark Esper should be fired, including his pledge to be apolitical and his opposition to flying Confederate flags on military bases.

The memo was shared on Twitter by the ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl, the author of the forthcoming book "Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show," an excerpt of which was published in The Atlantic on Tuesday.

The bulleted document called for Esper to be fired the day after the November 3 election and replaced temporarily by National Counterterrorism Center Director Chris Miller, who would then be replaced by "a capable Secretary of Defense, such as Robert O'Brien."

A version of that did happen. Esper was replaced by Miller on November 9, two days after most networks and news organizations had called the 2020 election for Joe Biden.

Among the memo's reasons for recommending Esper's firing were several eyebrow-raising points, including Esper's vow to be apolitical like his predecessor, James Mattis, and his "policy that bars the display of the Confederate flag on military installation."

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McEntee also appeared to take issue with Esper ruling out attacking cultural sites in Iran "if the conflict escalated" - which could be a violation of the laws of war - as well as his "expressed disinterest in supporting the President's transgender ban."

"He stated the issue 'hasn't really come up' and had found the perspectives of 'six or seven' active-duty transgender soldiers' perspectives 'helpful' as he thought through the issue," the memo said.

The memo also said Esper had earned the nickname "Yesper" and was opposed to Trump invoking the Insurrection Act to deploy combat troops to US cities during racial-justice protests in June 2020.

It added that Esper "failed to exercise oversight of the Joint Staff."

According to the book excerpt, the memo was one of a series that identified dozens of defense officials that had been said to have crossed Trump and needed to be fired. They were written with the help of Josh Whitehouse, a Trump supporter from New Hampshire who was just 25 when he was hired to act as a liaison to federal agencies.

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The book excerpt says Whitehouse said he was "going to the Pentagon to fire Esper and those deep-state bastards" when he was assigned to represent the White House at the Pentagon.

The book adds that McEntee, himself just 29 when he wrote the memos, was fired and escorted out of the building in March 2018 by then-chief of staff John Kelly after a background check showed he "deposited suspiciously large sums of money into his bank account" that came from gambling. He was later rehired and elevated to the personnel position in January 2020.

Karl writes that McEntee focused on perceived loyalty to Trump during his tenure as the White House's chief personnel officer, adding that it resulted in things like a phone call in the middle of a confirmation hearing about a low-level staffer liking a Taylor Swift Instagram post that praised Joe Biden.

McEntee did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

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