Thread by @jaketapper

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has been pushing back on President Donald Trump since 2019, which is important context for today’s firing, senior administration officials tell CNN.

1/

2/ Esper was among those administration officials in 2019 who urged Trump to release the aid to Ukraine, as we (and others) reported last Fall.

Trump was using the aid as leverage for dirt on the Biden family.

cnn.com/2019/10/31/pol…

3/ Esper also cautioned Trump not to completely pull troops out of northern Syria, and after the Lafayette Square mishap, was extra careful to try to keep the US military out of the realm of the President's political desires, senior administration officials tell CNN.

4/ Secretary Esper did not want US troops in the streets of the US during the unrest over the summer, and told the President not to invoke the Insurrection Act, as he said at the time.

cnn.com/2020/06/03/pol…

5/ In recent months Esper was repeatedly subjected to the ire of the White House in his insistence that the Pentagon and US military not be part of the President's reelection campaign,...

6/ ... this was in marked contrast to the actions of Attorney General Barr, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Purdue, all of whom used their departments in various ways that helped Trump 2020.

7/ Then of course there's the Rivada 5G spectrum fight, which we covered a few weeks ago.

In short: Trump has been mad at him for pushing back on matters since 2019!

cnn.com/2020/10/20/pol…