President Donald Trump fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on Monday.  Their relationship reportedly cooled over the last few months. The president announced his decision in a tweet.

“I am pleased to announce that Christopher C. Miller, the highly respected Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (unanimously confirmed by the Senate), will be Acting Secretary of Defense, effective immediately,” said Trump.

“Chris will do a GREAT job! Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service,” Trump added.

...Chris will do a GREAT job! Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2020

Esper locked horns with Trump on multiple issues, including the usage of federal troops to quell protests throughout the summer and renaming U.S. military bases named after former Confederate leaders.

Critics of the move have raised concerns that Trump will continue to fire administration officials ahead of the Biden administration's plans to take the reigns of the U.S. government in January. It is unknown at this point in time whether more terminations are planned for officials within the Trump administration.

It is no secret that Trump conflicted with officials in Washington entrenched across multiple agencies from the Department of Defense (DoD) to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to the CDC. Of course, there is a chance that Esper along with other officials who have been terminated may return to their government posts during the Biden administration.

Looming in the background of Esper's removal is whether Trump will concede to Joe Biden, whom the media projected the winner in Georgia and Pennsylvania. The president continues to question the media and the results in the battleground states. It is clear, he will not accept defeat until the ballot counting and litigations over allegations of voter fraud is over.

Since when does the Lamestream Media call who our next president will be? We have all learned a lot in the last two weeks!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 8, 2020

“We should look at the votes. We’re just beginning the tabulation stage. We should look at these allegations. We’re seeing a number of affidavits that there has been voter fraud. We have a history in this country of election problems. In Pennsylvania you had an order by a...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 8, 2020

....how these ballots were authenticated, because if there’s a problem in the system about authentication, that would seriously affect the ENTIRE ELECTION - And what concerns me is that we had over a hundred million mail-in ballot in cites like Philladelphia...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 8, 2020

Indeed, this is an unpredictable time for both administration officials and the American people.

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