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Trump nominates loyalists to senior Pentagon positions

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) –
While pursuing a legal challenge to the November 3 election results, President Donald Trump has nominated three loyalist officials to senior Defense Ministry posts, the Voice of America reports. The nominations were made Wednesday, a day after the President fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

After terminating Esper on Tuesday, Trump promoted long-term national security official Christopher Miller as acting Defense Secretary. Miller brought his own chief of staff, Kash Patel, to replace Jen Stewart. Patel is a former Republican congressional aide who authored a report questioning the conduct of FBI and DOJ officials investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. VOA describes Patel as “staunchly loyal” to Trump.

Following the resignation of acting undersecretary for policy James Anderson on Tuesday, Trump then nominated Anthony Tata, a retired Army one-star general to that post. A Fox News commentator, Tata has referred to former President Barack Obama as a “terrorist leader.”

In a post-election pre-planned move, retired Navy vice admiral Joseph Kernan then resigned as undersecretary for intelligence, and Ezra Cohen-Watnick was nominated to his place. Cohen-Watnick is a former aide to Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser who pleaded guilty to perjury. Cohen-Watnick, too, is described by VOA as being “staunchly loyal” to Trump.

Although the changes at the Defense Ministry have been described by some commentators as “abrupt” and “tumultuous,” VOA observes they may not affect the workings of the Pentagon to a very great degree: the Defense Ministry is ultimately rooted in the tenet of civilian control of the military.

Additionally, VOA notes: “much of the day-to-day activities [at the Pentagon] are conducted by career policy experts and military leaders in the U.S. and around the globe who adhere to a strict chain of command.”