The U.S. military chain of command could soon be thrown into doubt.
President Donald Trump is potentially on the cusp of ousting his Pentagon chief. And there are worries his team will refuse to work with a new incoming administration should Democratic nominee Joe Biden prevail, resulting in months of unrest at a critical moment abroad.
Right now, Washington is grappling with hot spots across the globe, including the U.S. drawdown in Afghanistan, where there is increasing violence, ongoing tensions with Iran, as well as ramped-up Chinese aggression in the South China Sea.
National security experts say uncertainty at home could lead to flare-ups in any one of those regions.
“Of course adversaries will try to take advantage of what they perceive to be a leadership vacuum in the U.S. national security establishment. I’d be more worried about just below-the-radar bad behavior than overt moves, too,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, a former congressional adviser on defense now with the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper — who has long been seen as out-the-door regardless of who won the election — may be gone as early as next week, according to numerous reports. Esper is already expected to resign during the transition period should Trump lose to Biden, but sources have also said Trump plans to fire his Pentagon chief after the election results are in.
Esper’s vacancy, which would be filled in an acting capacity by Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist, would offer a window for U.S. enemies to probe America’s defenses, according to Eaglen.
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The U.S. military chain of command could soon be thrown into doubt. https://t.co/uRlwowYr2e
— The Hill (@thehill) November 7, 2020
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