Trump sacks Esper, names Miller as acting defense secretary

President Donald Trump tweeted on Monday afternoon that he had terminated secretary of defense Mark Esper and appointed as acting secretary of defense Christopher Miller, the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Before that, Miller had served as a policy official at the National Security Council. Esper had clashed more than once with the president during his term at the Pentagon. In June,  he refused to support the president’s invocation of the Insurrection Act for deploying active-duty troops to quell violent protests against police brutality.