DeDe Halfhill, Milley’s spokesperson, disputed the narrative that the general is the one calling the shots. The U.S. Senate confirmed him by a vote of 90-8 on July 23, 2019. The Department of Health and Human Services hopes to leverage DOD’s expertise and vast resources to enable faster manufacturing and distribution of the eventual vaccine.“He took back control of the Pentagon,” said the former White House official.
Mark Thomas Esper (born April 26, 1964) is the 27th and current United States Secretary of Defense, and a former U.S. Army officer and defense contractor lobbyist.He previously served as the 23rd United States Secretary of the Army from 2017 to 2019. Milley himself has maintained publicly that in his role as chairman he is strictly an adviser and commands no forces.Another of Esper’s priorities is finding cost savings in the department’s vast budget. “Where is his sense of outrage?”Esper believes O’Brien is angling for his job, the official said.But far from being a “yes man,” Esper knows how to make his voice heard, Punaro said.“Gen. Esper and Milley have said publicly that once they knew Erdogan’s troops were crossing the border, they both advised the president to move U.S. forces out of their way.A senior defense official agreed that the State Department had the lead on the peace negotiations, but noted that Esper received regular updates from the team on the ground."Secretary Esper has certain issues he is passionate about, particularly anything military related, and he is closely involved in those things.
“I know he doesn’t hesitate to give his views, but on the other hand he understands when a decision is made, you’ve got to basically execute.”Esper’s relationship with Milley is another area of concern for those who fear the Defense secretary doesn’t stand up for himself. Finally, in May 2019, Trump announced he would nominate Shanahan to the permanent post, but Shanahan suddenly withdrew from consideration just weeks later over reports involving past tensions with his ex-wife and children. And look, I do everything I can to try to stay apolitical and try and stay out of situations that may appear political. "Well, I did know that we were going to the church. A Gulf War veteran who rose to lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve and later worked on Capitol Hill and in the defense industry, Esper is a disciplined and routine-oriented secretary. Of the total leadership positions in the department, 78 percent are filled, and another 13.5 percent have been hired for.“I think we are well within norms for this stage in an administration,” said the first senior defense official. Hoffman said the contentious exchange did not happen, noting that the two men have been “friends for decades.”Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani | AP Photo Some defense officials insisted the two men have a strong partnership, built during the two years Esper was Army secretary and Milley was the service’s chief of staff. Esper instituted weekly Monday meetings that brought together all of the Pentagon’s military and civilian leaders to touch base on the week’s events. Mark Esper is the secretary of defense for the U.S. Department of Defense.President Donald Trump (R) nominated him to this position on July 15, 2019. He also has experience as a national security adviser on Capitol Hill. “He stood up for what’s right, he stood up for the people under his charge there in the Pentagon, the civilians in the military.
In one glaring example, he was largely cut out of Afghan peace negotiations. Mark Esper moves to shed his ‘yes man’ reputation. But the abandonment of the Syrian Kurds “upset a lot of us,” he said.For example, early on, Esper ended the apparent practice of Pompeo meeting directly with the four-star officers in charge of the department’s combatant commands.But despite their best efforts, the Esper-Milley team failed to prevent several disastrous Trump foreign policy decisions, perhaps most notably a crisis in Syria.